Beauty and the Beast
by Unit 667 Ra
Summary: [Mai Otome ShizNat] Long story short, Natsuki is cursed to become a beast. Before the last petal of an enchanted rose falls, she must learn to love and earn that person's love in return to break the spell. Silliness ensues.
1. Prologue

Okay, so I'm bringing this fic here from Shoujo-Ai.While _Dead Girl's Poem_ was mainlymanga!Shiz angst, thisis a work of parody and isn't exactly meant to be taken seriously. Bear with me.

Beauty and the Beast

* * *

**Prologue: For Whom The Rose Curses**

Once upon a time, in a far-away land, there was - aw, screw it, you know the deal. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah.

In the kingdom of Windbloom, ruled by everyone's favorite lavender-haired mini-tyrant little SD Queen Mashiro Blan de Windbloom... okay, this isn't her story, so tough luck, Your Highness. So anyway, there was an academy where girls were either dragged in (kicking and screaming) by their parents or entered of their own free will (God only knows why) to become members of the totally awesome army of SUPER MAGICAL MAID GIRLS.

In other words, Otomes. Complete with hideous lolita maid uniforms.

Now, in this world-famous lolicon lolita academy otherwise known as Gaderobe, little girls were trained to combat the Evil Schwartz Army of Not-Niceness. And they are given these nanomachines that helps them Materialize! into flashy lolita battle robes (Gawd, how many times do I have to use the word "lolita"?) and kick villain ass. Also, the Otomes cannot, I repeat, CANNOT come into sexual contact with the opposite sex. If 'this' or 'that' should happen, the nanos will completely fry and the Otomes can no longer go into their Mahou Shoujo Senshi Henshin Mode. Who else thinks that this is just some stupid excuse to add more same-sex relationships in Gaderobe? Not that there's anything WRONG with that, of course...

Oh, but where is my mind? Every school has a principal, and this one is no exception. For Gaderobe was run by the head honcho, the big kahuna, the boss of bikers, the master of mayo, Natsuki Kruger. It was rumored that while she was a Hot Biker Girl(tm) with a tendency to add obscene amounts of mayonnaise to fried chicken in her school days, she had a thing for pimping her bedroom with a HUGE bed and a grand piano. Who puts a grand piano in their bedroom, anyway? In any case, nobody is perfect and everybody has their flaws. For example: this young principal, while beautiful, strong and complete with the ideal womanly graces at the tender age of twenty-something was... how can I say this delicately, and possibly in a politically correct manner?

She was a violent little bitch.

Yes, that will do nicely. Everyone has to be a crazed little ho driven by bloodlust at least once in their lives! Anyway... the blue-haired commando of Gaderobe was as easy to anger as she was hawt. And really, who could possibly resist a woman like her? She DOES have "Sugoi Proportions," after all! Uncaring, selfish, and a time bomb just waiting to explode, she didn't take crap from anyone and showed no mercy to anyone she deemed an enemy. On that note, she was quite, ah, creative in her beat-the-crap-out-of-anyone-that-looks-at-her-funny techniques. Natsuki was well-known for attacking bums in her teenage years. And really, that's all you need to know.

She attacked bums and junkies. She attacked them with clothe racks, butchered them with fire axes, bonked them with pipes, blasted them with guns, beat them about the shoulders and head with mannequin arms, bludgeoned them with sledgehammers, went WWE on their asses with locker doors, poked their eyes out with pool sticks, and flogged them with shovels. And if all else failed, she could always pull off various finishing moves. Snap... crackle... _damn!_ If one were to ask the students, Natsuki with a blunt object was their worst nightmare. The woman practically beat a pedophile teacher into submission with a rather heavy chair from her office. Now, if she were to materialize and go Sephiroth on some poor unsuspecting fella's ass... let's not go there. All I can say is that she fully intended to live her life to the fullest of violence.

But alas, she would not meet a gloriously gory demise like so many other psychotically violent Otomes on the battlefield, oh no. Fate had something else in store for her. And take note that whenever fate (or any other divine force for that matter) has something planned for you, then you're pretty much screwed.

About one year ago, the very same night Lady Luck happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by for a visit, Her Royal Batshit Craziness (no, not Mashiro) was already in a bad mood. This was due to the fact that her overly violent personality was influenced by her rather corrupted upbringing. She lived with her parents in a big house (surrounded by barbed wire) in the countryside where her folks would shoot and kill any enemies they saw on their land. As it turned out, Natsuki had visited her "home" not long ago and left the place with the bodies of fifteen bums and junkies in the "garden" and asked if she could get a tax break for all that unpaid work. No satisfying results there.

So Gakuenchou returned to Gaderobe on her ever-reliable Duran V8 motorbike one freezing cold winter night. She had just put her bike away and was about to enter the sweet, sweet warmth within the academy when someone called for her beyond the barred gates. It was an old beggar woman, and she had offered a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Unimpressed by the woman's haggard appearance (not to mention the gift), Natsuki scowled distastefully at the rose and told the poor old woman to beat it. But the beggar warned her not to be decieved by appearances, for true beauty is found within. And when the Kruger told her off yet again, the beggar's ugliness vanished to reveal a mystically beautiful enchantress, in that "I'mma Rip You A New One And Look Good Doing It" kind of way.

Of course, Natsuki was partly freaked-out and partly dumbstruck by what was going on. I mean, who wouldn't? Some old beggar lady turned into a kickass enchantress chick with flowing purple hair, piercing green eyes, demon horns and a humongously overcompensating crystal spear! That's something you definitely don't see everyday. In the Headmistress' defense, she gathered her wits and her heavy man-like voice as well.

"Wha-- who the hell-?"

"Natsuki Kruger, Quartz of the Ice and Snow, I have seen that there is no love in your tiny, brain-bashing obsessed heart."

"Saaaaay... what?"

"And as such, I shall see to it that you are punished appropriately." The crystal deity then shoved the rose into Natsuki's face. "This is an enchanted rose, and it shall bloom until your twentieth year. When the last petal falls, you will be doomed to live with your curse for all eternity."

Natsuki blinked, glancing at the deity, then at the rose, then back to the deity again. Honestly, she didn't know what the hell this lady was talking about.

"Curse? What curse?"

The deity smiled. And not just any smile, but the dreaded Evil Smile(tm). The kind of ominous, psychotic smile that most people associate Sephiroth with. Natsuki felt a bit uneasy. And for good reason.

"Until you can learn to love another, and earn their love in return by the time the last petal falls, you will be forever cursed into this form."

Natsuki frowned. "Okay, okay, I get it already. Put away the proverbial Mallet of Eternal Curses and stop hitting me with it."

Natsuki suddenly felt white-hot pain surge through her body. It was like ten years worth of agonic cramp-induced PMSing at once, closely followed by the feeling of being ripped in two, then getting both halves squeezed simultaneously through holes the size of a photon. The sensation ended almost as quickly as they began, and Natsuki realized she felt somewhat... different. She looked at her hands and nearly had a massive heart attack at the sight of big, animalistic hands with sharp ebony claws and covered in blue-black fur. She didn't need to look at her reflection to see what had become of her, but she did have something to say about it.

"WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK!"

The deity chuckled sinisterly. "Who would want you now, dear Gakuenchou? You're a hideous beast. And besides, you can't even get a pity date because you're such a violent little bitch."

Natsuki felt the gravity of the situation crashing down on her like seventy fricktillion chibi Slaves with cannonballs.

"Good luck, Natsuki-chan. And remember..." The deity then pushed her face up close to Natsuki's furry one. "BEFORE THE LAST PETAL FALLS."

Natsuki stared at the enchanted rose clutched in her large hand with a flabbergasted look. The deity pulled back and smiled sweetly.

"Have a lovely evening."

And thus, Natsuki Kruger was left seriously pwned. As if that wasn't bad enough, the entire academy was cursed as well. Every little thing, down to the last janitor, was doomed to suffer the same furry fate. Just goes to show that fate is the kind of divine force that does things efficiently and thoroughly in one fell swoop.

As the horrified shrieks of students and teachers alike crackled through the crisp night air like a chorus of shotguns, Natsuki could feel the despair coursing through her veins. So she had to fall in love with someone and have that person return the same love to break the spell? In that case, she was doomed.

For who could ever learn to love a beast?


	2. Chapter I

**Chapter 1: Graceful Amethyst and Metal Gear Sergey**

If someone were to call Shizuru Viola beautiful, that would be an understatement.

There wasn't a single human being that wouldn't find her so absurdly alluring. Long, flowing light brown hair perfectly framing a pale, porclean face accentuated by the high nose and unusual-yet-captivating crimson eyes, followed by voluptuous curves that would send any mortal's mind to wild sensuality (leading to lustful, hot-blooded moaning), delicate hands with long, slender fingers, and a hypnotic accent to top it all off. Nobody could possibly resist her charm, looks, or anything else about her. Honestly, when is this woman NOT freaking hot, I ask you? One had to wonder exactly how many stalkers she has.

I tell you what, one thing's for sure, none of them were NEARLY as obsessive, relentless or, well, psychotic as Tomoe Marguerite. And yes, I realize that her last name kind of sounds like Margarita to an extent, so let's keep the "Wasting Away in Margueriteville" jokes to ourselves, shall we?

Anyways. It just so happened that Shizuru was spontaneously traveling around (for a year?) and just returned to Windbloom via one of those spiffy desert cruise ships. Maybe she wanted to do that "I wanna see the world!" thing or something, who knows. But for now, she just exited the station and walked into the city, suitcase in hand, and a calm expression that would even make a beast suffering from rabies feel serene inside. Unnoticed by her (or maybe she did notice and chose to ignore it, I dunno), someone was trailing her every move, gazing at her with slightly bloodshot grayish-lavender eyes. Three guesses who.

If you guessed Tomoe, then yay! You are correct! The girl who might be suitable for a "I Was A Teenage Psycho-Stalker" movie was currently lurking in the crowd, doing her very best to keep up with Shizuru, but putting some distance between them for safety. Tomoe's green hair was a bit messy and there were dark circles under her eyes, clear evidence of several sleepless nights.

...Okay, hold the freaking phone. Did she follow Shizuru for the whole trip, _all year long_? Holy crap, this chick is creepy.

So, back on topic. Tomoe's Super Stealthy Stalker way of keeping tabs on Shizuru might have been failsafe, but when you're someone like Tomoe, then you're more than likely to have a henchwoman running about somewhere in town. And as fate would have it, that very henchwoman somehow spotted the demented-- er, determined girl amidst a large crowd of tourists. If only Tomoe's eyes weren't so affixed on Shizuru (tch, as if that's even humanly _possible_), then she probably would have seen her henchwoman coming at her a mile away. But of course, someone randomly grabbing her by the arm and dragging her to some alleyway caught her completely by surprise.

"What the fu-- Miya?"

"Where HAVE you been? You come up to me out of the blue, saying you won an exclusive Member's Only cruise to Zipang and you disappear for the rest of the year. That was a pretty lame story, and besides, we both know you're not part of any membership to begin with. I mean, what the God, Tomoe!"

Tomoe rubbed her temples in mild annoyance. Miya was the kind of subordinate that worried over her like a mother hen with a huge forehead. And quite frankly, it was very tempting to stamp something like "Tomoe's Bitch" on it.

"Where do you think I've been, Miya? What could possibly make me leave Windbloom for a year? Hmmmm?"

It took a split second for something to click in Miya's brain. Tomoe could swear that from where she was standing, Miya's forehead looked like a lightbulb. The brunette promptly adopted the "Are You Shitting Me With This" expression. Hey, you can't blame her, I would too.

"Don't tell me you were following Shizuru-oneesama this whole time..."

"No shit."

"I know you're persistent, but this is starting to get out of hand."

"Silence!" Tomoe barked, bitchslapping Miya across the face. "You make it sound like I'm a stalker!"

Gee, I wonder why. Miya rubbed the stinging red mark on her face while Tomoe jumped onto the sidewalk and searched frantically for any sign of Shizuru-oneesama. She was nowhere in sight. The green-haired stalker cursed in frustration and folded both arms, leaning against a garbage disposal. Miya sighed, not knowing what to do with her. And really, who would?

"Things have been pretty weird since we got expelled," she declared in a half-assed attempt to make conversation.

Tomoe grunted, her way of letting the other girl know that she was listening but didn't really give a damn.

Oh, and about them getting expelled... from what Miya heard, Tomoe was much, much worse than Natsuki-Gakuenchou. And not in the violence department, more like in the scheming crazy bitch sort of way. While the Kruger wasn't so cruel as to sacrifice her students and just beat people within an inch of their lives (unless it was someone from Schwartz, then she'd kill them), Tomoe was notorious for her constant stalking of Shizuru and her bad habit of resorting to sabotage when it came to eliminating her rivals. Natsuki was violent, but she wasn't ruthless. Unless of course, she got pissed off to the point where she'd materialize, whip out her rail gun and blast something half-way to hell. Tomoe on the other hand, actually had an angry, torch-wielding mob set charges against her for various reasons.

Let's see, here we have a formor Otome with a major, _major_ criminal record by the age of fifteen. Her list of crimes went as follows: attempting first-degree murder, multiple counts of malicious mischief, environmental destruction, multiple counts of breaking and entering, illegal possession of a weapon, attempted extortion (aka blackmailing), accused of rape/sexual assault and battery (on Miya), conspiracy to commit crimes against the country, et cetera et cetera. Yeah, just about more than enough to kick her right off campus and drag her to prison. The only reason she wasn't rotting behind bars where she belonged was because the little schemer somehow managed to clear herself of all charges. Don't ask how, though. I seriously don't think we need to explain _those_ methods.

The only reason Miya got expelled was because she was Tomoe's reluctant accomplice in many of those crimes. Although, she actually kind of enjoyed the sexual assault and battery... but that's just Tomoe taking out her sexual frustrations on her trusty partner-in-crime.

"Like, when you ran off to sta--" Miya froze when Tomoe shot her a venemous look and tried again. "...I mean, to _keep an eye_ on Shizuru-oneesama, the academy's been shut down."

Tomoe raised her eyebrows. "Shut down?"

"Yeah. I don't know why, though. Nobody's been able to make contact with anyone there. I hear Her Highness has been upset for quite some time now, seeing as nobody knows what happened to her contracted Otome..."

So Gaderobe's been silent for over a year? Very suspicious indeed, Tomoe decided. Just what the hell happened while she was away?

* * *

Later that day...

Shizuru stared at the deathly silent academy. Weird. Usually, she'd see a couple students hanging around whenever she dropped by once  
in a while. Then there was the school itself; either something really bad happened, or the new interior decorator had a Gothic look in mind. Whatever, it looked pretty freaky and ominous either way. The place was quiet as a freaking graveyard, but Shizuru was completely unfazed. No surprises there. She is the Almighty Kyoto-ben Wonder, after all.

She heard something, like a muffled "Dammit!" coming from the bushes. Stumbling out of the plants came someone Shizuru really, REALLY didn't want to see.

Major Sergey Wang. Or as I like to call him, **Sir Gay** Wang.

Sure, he may be a well-known 'playa' around these parts, but deep down inside, he was just a womanizing pretty boy with a daughter complex. If he'd stop obsessing over making his hair look "spiky and cool" and comb it down a little, he'd might be a little more attractive while looking about ten years younger. But then again, he might end up looking like Tidus with sideburns and a Squall scar. Ah, that damned little scar. The most useful thing when it comes to reeling in pretty ladies, no self-proclaimed Bedroom Warrior was complete without one like it. Yeah, give the man a scar on his forehead and he thinks he's the next badass hero for Final Fantasy XII or something.

"Wang-san?" Shizuru called out, hoping this would be over quickly. But really... Wang-san. Hee.

"Viola-san!" Sergey called back, instinctively activating his built-in Playa Module.

Oh, _hell_ no.

"Is something wrong?"

"I just got back from my trip--" Wow, what a coinky-dink. "--and I wanted to see if Nina-chan was good while I was gone. But I've heard that Gaderobe's been shut down for some reason or another."

Shizuru couldn't help but think, _Well, duh!_

"So you're breaking in so you can see if she's all right, yes?"

"Exactly," Sergey admitted sheepishly. "And I didn't quite tell Nagi-Denka what I was planning for tonight..."

"Would it help if I went to the castle and told him what you're doing?"

"Oh, yes, it would! Thank you. Shall I repay your kindness with dinner, maybe Saturday?"

"Thanks, I'll pass," Shizuru retorted quickly. The last thing she wanted was a date with a guy, of all things.

"Too bad," Sergey shrugged with mild disappointment. "Well, I'll be off."

Leaving things at that, the blonde yanked the barred gates open and jogged in. Shizuru shook her head and went on her way. Wise decision. God knows that dude never failed to creep her out.

* * *

"HEY! HEL-LOOOOOO-?"

Sergey's hollers echoed throughout the massive hallways, bouncing off the walls and shaking furnature. Yeah, he's a REAL Solid Snake, this one. If he thought the outside was creepy, the inside was fit for yet _another_ House on Haunted Hill remake. There was even a pair of statues resembling humanoid animals, set in different poses. One looked like a fox leaning against the wall with both arms folded. The other appeared to be a crow with spiral pigtails (what the hell?) bending over and handling some sort of phallic device.

"Hey Spiral, this guy looks like someone you can Maki-Maki into next Tuesday," the fox whispered good-naturedly. "He's quite the noisy bastard."

"Keep quiet, _Juliet_," the crow hissed. "Maybe he'll shut up and leave. And it's Shiho to you."

"Then stop calling me Juliet. The name's Nao."

Sergey could swear he heard something. "Is someone there?" Hey dumbass, there are two statues that aren't really statues conversing ten feet away from you. Like, DURRR.

"Not a word, Nao, not one word," Shiho muttered from the corner of her mouth (beak?).

"I'm sorry for breaking in like this, but I'm worried about my daughter and-... ah screw it, NINA-CHAAAAAAAAAANNN!"

"Oh, for..." Nao groaned, resisting the urge to rub her temples in annoyance. Wait for it...

"**OTOU-SAMA**--?"

Oh, here we go.


	3. Chapter II

**Chapter 2: Marriage Issues and Big Hairy Beasts **

"OTOU-SAMA--?"

Sergey barely had time to turn around when he was quite literally knocked face-first into the floor as something dark and furry tackled him from behind. The something dark and furry had its arms and legs latched tightly around his midsection and was currently nuzzling its head into Sergey's back, right between his shoulder blades. Talk about an obsessive daughter. This kid is WAY too happy to see him for my taste.

"It's been a while since I saw someone get glomped so passionately," Nao remarked, smirking at the sight.

Shiho twirled her ebony pigtails in irritation. Great, juuuuuuuust great. The first person to have enough sense (or not a lot) to walk in the school to see what in the hell was going on, and it just HAS to be SERGEY of all people. And God help us, Nina had to go and initiate the SUPER TACKLE POUNCE OF LOOOOOVE! and ultimately blow their cover. Gakuenchou is _not_ going to be happy about this.

Sergey twisted his neck around to get a better look at what tackle-hugged him from behind. From his current position, all he could make out was a mane of dark blue hair tied into two spiky pigtails, currently flapping to-and-fro from the nuzzling, and a bushy tail wagging excitedly. Hold it. Bushy tail? The blonde playa staggered to his feet, causing his little foster child to adjust her position so that she was now snuggling into his chest. Sergey placed both hands on her thin waist to pull Nina away slightly and get a good look at her face. He blinked. He blinked again. And again. And a fourth time for good measure.

A dog. Nina was a freaking _dog_.

"Nina... chan?" he choked out, his brownish eyes insanely wide to the point where they looked bigger than dinner plates.

"Otou-sama," Nina replied.

Sergey let out a terrified yelp and jumped away, accidentally letting go of poor Nina-chan and sending her tumbling down on her bum. Nina yipped in mild surprise and stood up, rubbed her backside and dusting off her pants. Her father stared on with a look of mixed shock and fascination and his jaw hanging open, as if in a blowjob manner. Well, it's not everyday you see someone's daughter turn into a black lab wearing a red/white hoodie and track pants. I understand he's surprised, but Wang-san (hee!) better hurry up and close his mouth before a certain canary makes a nest in it.

Shiho, all traces of patience lost, hopped over and slapped Nina upside the head with her Maki-Maki Phallus.

"Way to go, Inu-Nina! You're supposed to stay in the shadows, ninja-style, GEDDIT! Splendid, just peachy. This is SO going in my diary."

"And who was the one that said not to say a word?" Nao mocked, sweeping the floor with her tail.

"You shut up!"

Pulling a Curious George, Sergey grabbed a hold of Shiho's hand and studied the feather-like fingers, tweaking and stretching them. He completely ignored Shiho's caws of "Get him off me, get him off me!" and Nao's stifled snickers and moved to the patch of black tail feathers poking out of Shiho's trousers. He just laid a finger on them when Shiho lost it and proceeded to peck at him with her beak. Ah, sweet punishment for inadvertently being perverted.

"Keep your hands off, you perv!" Shiho screeched while furiously scribbling spirals into her diary of Maki-MakiDoom. "Your daughter is here too, you shameless son of a--"

"Not in front of the kids," Nao grinned smugly, clamping the crow's beak shut.

Nina took advantage of this moment to drag Sergey off to show him some 'proper hospitality' and saying how much she missed him, blah blah blah. Insert gag-fest here. Just seeing her dear ol' daddy again was enough to chuck any thought of consequences at a certain principal's hand clear out of her mind. Good Lord, this kid is on Cloud 9, somebody give her a reality check, stat.

And, oh my goodness! My prayers have been answered... sort of. Something was running their way, and Sergey felt his eyes bugging out once he could make out just what it was.

"The HELL is that thing!" he hollered.

The thing came to a complete stop just a few feet away from them. It looked like some kind of light blue mecha wolf with piercing red eyes, serrated steel teeth and rather frighteningly large cannons mounted on its back. The end of its tail glinted dangerously in what little light was present, like a perfectly forged blade. Say hello to Duran, folks. Although, I don't get why Sergey's freaking out like that, I think Duran's cool.

"It used to be Gakuenchou's bike," Nina declared, gazing distastefully at the robo-dog that was currently growling at her daddy.

"...Are you shitting me with this."

"No."

Shiho chose that instant to barge in, screaming something about throwing Sergey out. Nao simply waltzed in behind her, finding the situation itself to be quite amusing. All the while, Sergey was trying to pet Duran on the head without getting his hand ripped off.

"Good doggie... nice doggie..."

_GROWL!_

"Bad doggie, bad doggie!"

"Why the hell isn't that mutt kicking him out? We all know what Gakuenchou'll do when she finds out about this-- NINA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT PIPE?"

"Bad dog, you don't bite Otou-sama! That's bad, BAD!"

_GRRRRR..._

"Nina-chan, calm down..."

"Oh, for the love of... Nao, DO something!"

"What do you expect me to do? Play fetch?"

Of course, someone has to make these people quit with the racket sometime this week. And what better way to make a crowd shut the hell up than to burst in, slamming the doors with more than enough force to rip them off their hinges and let Newton's law of inertia work its magic, you know? Dead, sweet silence reigned supreme in the area as a tall, monstrous being moved in, drooping on all fours, snarling viciously. Clearly, Sergey could already tell he was in deep shit. Nao had quickly moved out of the way, leaning coolly against the wall with Shiho hiding behind her legs. Duran trotted aside to let the newcomer do what it wanted. Nina stood perfectly still, as if trying in vain to protect Sergey from everything the known universe could throw at him.

_Somebody's_ going to have overtime bathroom-cleaning duty this week.

The big thing stood on two legs again and initiated a staredown with Nina. You can totally see the sparks flying between these two, I'm sure. The taller furry grabbed her by the shoulder and violently shoved her away so it could get a good look at Sergey's face. The good Major could see that this thing was actually more intimidating that Duran. The school, in all its dimly-lit candlelight glory, cast looming shadows over the beast's blue-black fur, giving its tall and slightly burly frame a sort of "Don't mess with me" feel. The wolf-like face, distorted into a state of absolute rage, seriously scared him at that point. A pair of bright green eyes flared, like emerald flames burning with violent anger in the dark shadows. Can we say, _Estuans Interius Ira Vehementi_?

"YOU!" the beastly wolf growled in a low, gruff snarl. "What the **fuck** are you doing here?"

We all know that Sergey's a manly man, but even he has his limits. These limits happen to include gigantic beasts foaming at the mouth in rabies-induced fury, à la Cujo. He stepped away a bit and lost his footing in the process, falling onto the hard floor. From where he was sitting, Sergey really didn't want to be acquanted with those massive hands that looked about ready to rip the skin of his face clean off the bones. He could practically see the knuckles bulging like bolts under the dark fur. Okay big guy, to refrain from fainting, repeat after me: it's only a hallucination. It's only a hallucination. Say it with me.

Unfortunately, he's too busy stuttering excuses as if he's begging not to get into a situation involving 'squealing like a pig'.

"I-I-I was just back from my cruise... a-and I was worried about my d-daughter--"

"YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE!"

"I-I'm sorry!"

The beast's eyes flared. "What are you staring at!"

At this point, Sergey's voice fell into a high-pitched squeak. "N-Nothing..."

A full row of white fangs were bared, as if five seconds short of sinking themselves into his flesh with animalistic rage.

"So, you've come to STARE AT THE BEAST, HUH?"

"No! I mean, I just... I wanted to see if my daughter was all right!"

"I'll give you someone to see if they're all right!"

Nao and Shiho had to wrestle Nina to the ground while the beast grabbed Sergey by the collar and dragged him to God knows where. The furry-ified Coral let out a string of curses and pounded the floor with her fist. Shiho turned to look at Nao.

"Say, where exactly do you think Gakuenchou's taking him?"

"Uh..." Nao twitched her ears, thinking. "Nina, is your dad afraid of spiders?"

"Unfortunately, yes. He isn't called the North Hound for nothing, but even he has his limits. And his limits require that Denka and I kill errant spiders for him. He always says he doesn't want them getting in his hair."

"What kind of spiders are we talking?"

"Like, dinky spiders the size of a fingernail. Why?"

"Because I have a feeling that he'll be facing one monstrous motherfucker where he's going..."

* * *

Upon informing Grand Duke Nagi de Artai of Sergey's intentions, Shizuru was offered a room at the castle. Mashiro-sama was throwing a royal fit all night long, but our lovable oneesama could live through it as long as she had tea and something to read. Hot and patient, is there anything else we want from this woman?

Her literary conquest came to an abrupt halt as soft rapping came at the guest room door. Shizuru placed a bookmark into the novel, removed her reading glasses (Shizuru... IN GLASSES -dies happy-) and walked for the door. Opening it, she was greeted by a maid some years younger with her brown hair in a braid draping gracefully over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Viola-san, but there's someone who wishes to speak with you."

Shizuru smiled, despite the bad feeling that she already knew who wanted to see her.

"It's alright, Senoh-san. Who was it?"

"I'm not sure, but it was a girl with green hair..."

Ah, _shit_.

"I see."

"She's waiting at the castle gates."

* * *

Tomoe had never felt more nervous in her entire stalky life. Even with Miya hiding in the bushes for some support, she couldn't help but feel freaked out. Well, I'd be nervous too if I were admitting my feelings to someone like Shizuru, but that doesn't mean I feel sorry for her. The stalker was even wearing a tuxedo, for crying out loud. A black jacket with matching slacks, a very pale green button-up shirt with a darker green tie. Now WHAT would Tomoe be planning? Gee, I can't _possibly_ imagine...

"Here she comes!" Miya hissed from the bushes.

"Oh, hell!" Tomoe whimpered.

As if she wasn't scared witless already, the sight of Shizuru-oneesama heading her way made Tomoe's heart crash against her ribcage like a mack truck. The chesnut hair flowing gently in the light breeze, eyes like roses, small smile gracing her lips, dear God, she was so...

_Gah! Focus, woman, FOCUS!_

"Tomoe-chan, what a surprise," Shizuru greeted.

_Oh my Gawds, she used 'chan'..._ "Uhh... well, I..."

"Here we go..." Miya grumbled, rubbing her temples in annoyance. "Now is not the time to get cold feet, Tomoe. It's only four simple words, just freakin' say them and be done with it..."

"Umm, I heard that you came back from your trip, so I..."

As determined and stalky as she is, Tomoe really doesn't know how to spit something out and get it over with. I'm willing to bet even a certain principal can do better than that, so HA!

"I hear it's been a bit quieter at Gaderobe since you left," Shizuru declared coolly, expertly avoiding the subject. "It really is a shame. You would've made a wonderful Otome."

"You think so? I-- wa-wait a minute! Oneesama, I..."

_For the love of-- JUST SAY IT!_ Miya was mentally screaming so loudly, I swear you can almost hear her brain hemorrhage.

Tomoe stared at Shizuru with what might be a desperate look, but she can't fool me. I think we all know she just wants to (**really long censor due to explicit content)** until Shizuru begs her to stop. It's kinda obvious. Fortunately, Shizuru doesn't want to go to prison for dating someone who is still in the jailbait category, so it's time to initiate The Hard Sell Cruel Edition.

"...You strikingly resemble me when I was young." A meaningful pause. "So don't take any detours, and look straight ahead."

Tomoe's desperate expression turned into something like shock or denial.

Hard sell. Success. And Shizuru didn't even have to use the Brutally Honest Edition.

"I have somewhere to go now, so I'll see you around sometime."

As the Pillar took off, Tomoe continued to gape at the spot where Shizuru stood up until five seconds ago. Miya jumped out of her hiding spot and waved a hand in front of her boss's face.

"Tomoe? Hello? Earth to Tomoe, do you read me? How many fingers am I holding up?"

_SLAP._

"Ow."

"Let's go to a bar, Miya. I need some eggs."

"Again?"

* * *

Sergey lounged about in his cell. The place was used for punishment to misbehaving students, and he was grateful that there was a window, so he could at least tell the time. He glanced up. So far, it looked late in the afternoon, so he knew hed been in there for a whole day. He still didn't know what that horrible beast was going to do to him, though.

_Another fine mess you've gotten yourself into this time, Wang. It was bad enough when I was still in the army, but this is just outrageous. As far as I can tell, everyone in the academy has been turned into furries and that monster of a principal is plotting some awful punishment for my breaking and entering and-- what the hell is that noise?_

A dull, scratchy noise echoed off the stone walls, causing Sergey to lift his head up to look at the wall opposite of him. What he saw there nearly caused the man to wet himself. And he's not alone. It's a goddamn spider the size of a small dog. Sergey made his arachnophobia very clear when an old war buddy dropped a toy spider on his head back in his military school days, but this is no goofy-looking squeaky toy. This is the real deal, complete with long, skinny legs, skittery sound effects and eight eyes. Sergey was used to watching his ever-loving Nina-chan and a certain spiky-haired creep of a duke smash puny little spiders, nothing close to the size of this monstrous bitch. The stupid thing clung to the wall, rotating on an axis, legs twitching, looking for something to terrorize. This is one big "Jesus Hootenanny Christ!" moment for Sergey.

Quite obviously, Sergey (and I) would rather go on a weekend getaway with Nagi than stay in this spidery prison. So his only option to keep from going insane due to giant spider-induced fear was to talk to himself. Oh, I'm sure there's nothing weird about that at all.

"Okay, Sergey think clearly. If I had my gun, I could shoot the living shit out of that gross spider, but then that spider would just land in front of me -- or even on my head! -- when I shoot it. God, what if that thing decides to do something even more horrifying and unacceptable? What if the damn monstrosity decides to crawl up to the ceiling and DROPS DOWN RIGHT IN MY FACE? Seriously, it's as big as my head. It'll drop down from the goddamn ceiling. I'll never sleep again. For chrissakes, I don't have any means of defense... unless I use my shoes... but WHAT IF THIS SPIDER GETS IN MY HAIR? Ugh. My scream would echo throughout all of Windbloom. _UGH_. Thanks, big bad beast, for such a beautiful, life-affirming experience. Truly, I am shaking in awe and crying tears of joy."

"Shall I offer some bug spray?"

Sergey jerked his head to the cell door. Through the barred window, he could see a familiar pair of red eyes. Time to thank his lucky stars.

"Viola-san! When'd you get here?"

"Just a few minutes ago. I felt bad about leaving one person to search the academy without knowing what had happened, so I decided to help out. That's when I overheard you talking to your new friend."

"New friend?" Sergey raised his eyebrows. "I was just talking to myself, there's nobody else in this cell but me, so..."

"I meant the spider."

"FRIGGIN' THING WANTS TO EAT MY HAIR!"

"In any case, would you care to explain how you got in here?"

"Oh. See, I broke in because I was worried about Nina, you know, so I did, and Nina came out of nowhere and this weird mecha dog started acting up, and then this HUGE monstrous BEAST popped up and started screaming at me for coming here and tossed me in here, with that hideous motherfucker on the wall right there, so here I am."

Shizuru blinked. She wondered if being stuck in a room with a big spider for a day had caused Sergey to temporarily lose his sanity. She tilted her head and raised a quizzical eyebrow. Sergey shrugged.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I'm dishonest, and you know, you can always trust a dishonest person to be dishonest. Honestly though, it's the honest ones you have to look out for, because you never know when they're going to do something... stupid."

...Okaaay.

"Really."

"Yes. You really should get out of here fast, Viola-san."

"Why is that?"

Sergey then grinned and adopted an outrageous pirate accent. "'Cause you're off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters!"

Shizuru sighed in mild exasperation. "Ridiculous imitation, and yet I'm sure that somewhere, Captain Barbarossa would be quite flattered."

Something stomped up behind Shizuru. Will the intrusions never end?

"Care to explain _why_ you're here?"

Shizuru looked behind her. In the shadows was a tall creature, slightly hunched over, staring at her with intense emerald eyes. Sergey promptly flipped out and pointed at the thing.

"Ha, that's the one! That's the beast that locked me in here! You didn't believe me, but there it is!"

Yeah, spazz out why don't you.

"Hey, shut up!" the beast snapped. "It's bad enough that you're talking to yourself about some damn spider, but now you have to scream at everything like some movie freak? God!"

"Well, seeing as I'm locked up in here, don't I have the right to remain silent?"

"Oi, you HAVE the right to remain silent. What you lack is the CAPACITY! You wouldn't know silence even if it slapped you in the face with a wet towel. Which it could do if it hasn't already tattooed itself on your retina."

"If I may," Shizuru interrupted. "I would like to make a deal with you."

"With which one of us?" Sergey asked stupidly.

"The beast."

Said beast made a coughing noise that sounded oddly like "_Dumbass!_" Shizuru took a step forward and stared at the beast. It was taller than she was by a few good inches, and the gruff, heavy man-like voice sounded oddly familiar to her. She could swear she saw those burning green eyes somewhere before.

"Tell me. What exactly do you plan on doing to Wang-san?"

Dear God, why does "Wang-san" always make me grin like an idiot?

The beast folded its arms. "Well, I was kind of thinking of letting him rot in there with El Disgusto Gigante."

"Who?"

"The spider."

"I think it's moving closer," Sergey whimpered.

"Anyway, I was also kinda wondering if I could use him as a sort of punishment for students that get expelled. They stay with him in the cell for the night and..."

Shizuru stared at the beast with such a look of horror that the taller being didn't bother finishing that sentence. God, either this thing has a very sadistic sense of humor or it's dead serious. Of course, Sergey got the basic idea of what it was saying and was about to say how offended he felt when the beast shot him a warning scowl, instantly shutting him up. The beast looked back at Shizuru.

"So, uh... what's your deal?"

"If I take his place, would you let him go, as well as sparing the students?"

The beast shrugged. "I guess so. I'm not so cruel as to sacrifice my students' virginity, let alone to him of all things."

"Stop talking like I'm not here!" Sergey hollered.

They ignored him, despite how big a noisy bastard he was being.

"Do we have a deal?" Shizuru asked.

"Sure. On one condition."

"Name it."

"As utterly lame as it sounds, you must promise to stay here forever."

"Done."

"WHAT!" Sergey shouted.

"Will you shut the hell up already?" the beast boomed.

Shizuru closed her eyes. Sure, it may cost her freedom, but there was something about this beast. She couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly, but something told her that this could be quite... interesting.


	4. Chapter III

**Chapter 3: Sharing What With the Who Now?**

"WAHHHHHH!"

Everyone's favorite major was quite literally thrown onto the pavement outside the barred gates. Sergey wiped some dirt from his face and turned around to look at Duran, sitting peacefully behind the gates. The motor mutt stuck a mechanical tongue out at him, let loose a few barks that sounded strangely like guffaws and trotted away. Sergey scowled.

"Damn mutt, wait'll I get my hands on you!" he boomed, scrambling to his feet to rip the gates open and chase after the mecha. He barely got within grabbing distance of the bars when Duran chose that instant to kick a conveniently-placed stick at the gates. Upon contact, the gates flared with electricity, some thousand bolts streaming dangerously through the metal. Sergey froze in mid-grasp, staring at the five-second lightshow with such a look of terror, you'd think he just saw the seventh gate to hell. Clearly, someone must've turned on the security system as soon as he was thrown out.

Well, _crap_.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the cell, Shizuru was busy staring intently at the beast, as if drawing a mental map of every detail. Oh, I'm _sure_ the big bad wolf wouldn't be uncomfortable under the Graceful Amethyst's gaze by now. Shizuru however, was racking through her memories in search of someone with the same burning green eyes, blue-black hair and heavy voice. 

Five seconds in, and something clicked.

Of course, who could forget someone as selfish, violent, and downright "Back off or I'mma put a cap in yo' ass" as Natsuki Kruger? Shizuru remembered all right. It was pretty hard to miss catching her in a fight with a couple other students, after all. She gave a smile, resulting in the beast towering before her twitch her ears in mild confusion.

"I must say, it's been a long time, Kruger-san," Shizuru declared good-naturedly.

"Okay, so you know my name," Beast!Natsuki grunted. "You want a medal or something?"

"Actually, I would like a--"

"'Scuse me!" Nao interrupted, popping up between them from right out of nowhere. "Hey Gakuenchou, have you seen Julia around?"

"It's in the cell," Natsuki pointed her thumb at the open door. "Why do you let that pet of yours run around in here, anyway?"

"Well, she's a spider, and I can't keep an eye on her all the time. Besides, Julia probably just had a whole load of mice guts in here, so she should be fine for a couple of weeks."

The foxified Pearl walked out of the small room, holding the giant spider in one hand and petting it with the other. She gave Shizuru a sly grin.

"By the way, if you're looking for a more comfortable room, why not share Gakuenchou's?"

"Ex-CUSE me?" the Kruger gripped Nao's shoulder tightly, her claws digging into the fabric of the fox's striped shirt.

"Oh, come on. You know as well as I do that the guest rooms here are pretty crappy, and God only knows what'll happen if we let her room with one of the students."

"I realize that, but that doesn't mean I want a roommate!"

Nao clutched the beast's jacket collar and hissed in her ear, "Need I remind you that _this might be your chance to break the spell!_"

Natsuki gave her a dangerous look. "Hands. Off. Now."

The crimson-haired fox yielded and backed away, Julia scuttling up to her shoulder. Shizuru watched on, amused, and Natsuki turned to scowl at the brunette.

"...I'll show you to your room."

Nao raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I thought that--"

"You want her to stay with your little face-hugger instead?" Natsuki snapped.

"Okay, okay! Jeez."

Natsuki glanced at Shizuru again and jerked her head in a "follow me" fashion, stalking away without waiting for a response. Shizuru walked right after her, feeling relieved that she wouldn't be rooming with El Disgusto Gigante Face-Hugger Julia. Can we stop talking about the frickin' spider now? I feel like I'm about to pass out.

* * *

"Okay, you'll be sharing my room from now on, end of story, goodbye, the end." 

Natsuki said this all very quickly while opening the door to her bedroom. Shizuru nearly tripped onto the carpet floor, having been roughly pushed inside by the wolf, but found her footing almost immediately. Now is that any way to treat a guest?

So. Natsuki's room was fairly large, giving off a sort of luxorious feel, despite the lack of decent lighting. She could plainly see a bookshelf rising up to the ceiling, a very comfortable-looking circular chair (the kind that when you first sit on it, you never want to get up), a grand piano placed right in the center of the room, and a humongous bed. No, humongous would be an understatement; it looked big enough to fit twenty Corals. I mean, what in the blue blazes, man.

On a nightstand right next to the monster-size bed lay a rose encased in a glass covering. It seemed to glow with an ethereal aura, an eerie light radiating from the crimson bloom. Wow, it's so... shiny.

Natsuki gripped Shizuru's shoulder. The brunette turned to look directly into the beast's eyes, waiting for her to speak.

"See that rose?" Natsuki growled, and Shizuru gave her a simple nod. "Do us all a really big favor and don't touch it. Any damage one to that goddamned thing will make the whole academy stay like this till the End of Days, regardless if I somehow, _someway_ manage to break the spell. Keep your hands off it and everything will be hunky-dory. Any questions?"

"Just one. Who told you about this rose and a spell?"

"A psycho enchantress with an overcompensating spear. And before you say anything, I am NOT crazy and/or high, and I don't have a secret stash of drugs hidden under my bed."

"Well, _that's_ good to know," Shizuru remarked, staring at the massive bed. Natsuki coughed and folded her arms, shooting the rose a look of absolute venom. If looks could kill, the rose would be a pile of ash at that moment, thus dooming everyone in Gaderobe to remain furries until the planet goes to hell. A low, frustrated growl issued from her throat. Shizuru had the feeling that her hostess was trying very hard not to break something. The beast turned around and stomped her way to the door.

"Look, I'm going to go calm my nerves, so do whatever you want. If you need anything, just give a holler and someone will attend you, uhhh..."

Natsuki looked back at her and raised both eyebrows, giving Shizuru a look that positively screamed "I don't recall your name, so do enlighten me, if you'd be so kind". Shizuru feigned a hurt expression and pouted cutely. Awww.

"You don't remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kruger-san."

"Hey, it's not like I take the time to remember people I couldn't possibly give two shits about from my school days! I don't even remember my own family, for chrissakes!"

Shizuru shrugged. "Ah, well. I suppose I can give you a little hint."

Natsuki blinked, watching the woman step closer to her. Unfortunately for her, Shizuru halted when she came beyond the beastified principal's personal space (which would be three feet), their faces just inches away. They stared at each other for a moment until Shizuru decided to speak up.

"Starts with an 'S'," she grinned, winking.

Natsuki faltered, stuttering. From under that fur, Shizuru could sense a blush invading the beast's cheeks and giggled at the idea of Natsuki blushing just because of a little wink. The Kruger scowled at her and muttered several curses, opening the door and slamming it behind her.

* * *

"Say, Kruger..." 

Natsuki gave a curt "Uhn" while slurping down her mayo-infested ramen. Mai Tokiha, her old roommate from school, gave the wolf a disapproving look.

"Are you even listening to me?"

The already infuriated principal gulped down a rather large mouthful and glowered at her.

"Look, Tokiha, I've got a lot on my mind right now, and I really don't need to take any crap from someone who's about to be somebody's chicken cutlet dinner if she's not careful."

The phoenix-like redhead puffed her cheeks in irritation. Natsuki cherished the silence for however long it lasted while stuffing the ramen down her throat. Stuff, chew, swallow, pause. She pushed the bowl away and brushed her hands together.

"So what do you want?"

"I want to know if you've considered that our guest might be the one to break the spell?"

"No, I've considered that a friend of a friend of a guy who's boyfriend's sister who is very deeply involved with the military will be the one to break the spell," Natsuki retorted with immense sarcasm. "OF COURSE I've considered she might be the one! I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, good. Then you have a chance of learning how to actually CARE about someone."

Natsuki grunted and ran a paw through her mane of midnight blue hair, shooting Mai an exasperated look.

"Listen, just because I considered the idea doesn't mean I'm optimistic about it. You talk as if me and her will fall in love by the stroke of twelve and _poof!_ the spell is history and all that fairytale BS."

"Excuse me, but in case you haven't noticed, the rose has already started to wilt! You're running on thin ice here, Kruger. At least try to care about her and maybe, just MAYBE, we can get out of this mess."

The wolf repeated raked through her hair in irritation. She seriously doubted that she'd be capable of lifting the curse any time soon.

"It's no use. She's practically a frickin' beauty incarnate and I'm just a..." Natsuki stared hard at her hand for a second before balling it into a fist and banging it on the table. "Well, LOOK at me!"

Natsuki slammed her face into the table, more than likely trying to knock some sense into herself and realize that she didn't stand a chance. Well, you never know until you try, right? Mai rubbed the back of her neck. She couldn't help but feel kind of bad for the beast, seeing as she wasn't exactly given a lot of affection as a child. It's too bad she had to be a prick about things like relationships, but it certainly wasn't unexpected.

"You have to help her see past all that fur and fangs," she offered. "Show her the beauty _of_ the beast, you know?"

"Hell if I know how to do that."

Mai glared and slapped her ex-roommate on the back, prompting the other furry to stand up and scowl at her. Mai took on an air of superiority, kind of like those military school instructers.

"You can start by making yourself more presentable. Now STRAIGHTEN UP!" Mai emphasized herself by stomping the floor and Natsuki jolted into an upright position, standing as stiffly as she could. "Try to act like a civilized human being. Work on proper eating skills. And would it kill you to cut back on the mayo, I mean geez!"

Natsuki glowered.

"What, now you want me to wear a collar and try to '_walk properly_' like a French poodle with epilepsy?"

"You're so negative, lighten up already. Speaking of which, when you get to see her again, try giving her a dashing smile. You know, those sexy grins guys shoot out when they're picking up girls. Come on, smile, show me the smile!"

Natsuki ended up baring her teeth while curving the ends of her mouth upwards. Not exactly what I'd call a pretty picture. She looks like she's trying to impersonate Sergey suffering from a stroke. Mai could tell and waved her hands while mouthing "scratch that" and instantly thought of something else.

"But, uh, don't frighten her or anything, so umm... oh, try impressing her with some charm or, what do they call it, rapier wit--"

"_Rapier_ wit, are you kidding me?"

"But be gentle!"

"Riiiiight, gentle, whatever."

"Uhhh, shower her with compliments, but try tobe sincere about it."

"I wonder if 'sincere' is even in my vocabulary."

"Don't forget to say please and thank you when she offers you something."

"You sound like I'm an ingrate!"

"Try not to strangle her if you get angry or anything."

"As if I would kill off my only chance!"

"And above all, YOU MUST CONTROL YOUR TEMPER!"

Even Natsuki knew she had to control her temper, so she didn't need to be told twice. She leaned back a little, craning her head back to stare at the ceiling. She didn't have the slightest clue about "going steady," but this was her only choice. Something like this would never happen again... it wouldn't hurt to make an attempt to get to know the woman currently lounging in her bedroom, right? Besides, making a good effort would be a bonus.

"So what else do you suggest I should do?"

Mai shrugged.

"Try to be nice, I guess."

"What if she isn't into 'nice' people? I seriously doubt I'm capable of impersonating a nice, boring, respectable guy. I mean, what if she has a particular taste for... I dunno... rebels?" Natsuki scratched her pointedear. "Jeez, a classy, refined lil' lady like her going for a beastly bike dyke like me? In another lifetime, maybe."

"When you put it that way, it kinda _sounds_ plausible," Mai remarked. "I guess some high-class people go for the rebels because they have a sort of freedom you can't find in a fancy house or something, I don't know."

"What I don't know is why I'm still having this conversation with you," Natsuki retorted. "This is starting to get really stupid... I'm going to bed."

Barely 2.7 seconds after the words left her mouth, the kitchen doors slammed open to reveal a golden-eyed black cat in shamaness robes riding on Duran's back. The feline catapulted herself off the mecha pooch and landed smack dap into Mai's bosom, nuzzling her face into the older furry's chest. Oh, _now_ we're cookin' with gas, people.

"Mai! Food!"

"Mikoto..." Mai grinned weakly. "How many times have you been hungry today? I swear you're gonna eat this school into the poor house one of these days."

* * *

Natsuki entered her bedroom only to freeze on the spot. She stared for a short moment before finally relaxing and scratching the back of her head. 

"Well, geez..."

Lying under the covers of her obscenely large bed, fast asleep, was that weird brunette. Her hair was a bit damp; obviously she figured out her way around Natsuki's room perfectly fine. The blankets draped up to her upper chest, Natsuki could plainly see that she was using one of her two-piece pajamas. Not like she cared, though. Sleeping in the same bed as another woman wasn't a big deal.

The wolf made her way over to the bed and was about to get in when Shizuru fidgeted a bit, moving around so that Natsuki could get a better look at her face. For some unknown reason, Natsuki didn't tear her eyes away from the sleeping woman. It was weird. Watching her sleep, that beautiful face so peaceful and content, made her feel somewhat calmer. Natsuki's features softened, her wolfish face falling into an expression of serene fascination. Her bright green eyes, normally narrow and burning with a violent ember within, relaxed and drank in as many details of Shizuru's face as she could. Her eyes eventually found themselves locked on the lower portion of her face, specifically her lips. They looked very soft...

Natsuki blinked and stiffened. A light streak of heat attacked her cheeks.

_What the hell... this isn't like me... _

She pushed any thought of the brunette's face straight out of her head, no matter how nice it was to look at. Throwing the covers back and flopping onto the mattress, Natsuki made sure her back was facing the other woman and shut her eyes in an attempt to sleep. She could only hope that nothing would happen that night.

* * *

Shizuru awoke feeling very warm. Well, she didn't necessarily open her eyes, but she was definitely feeling quite warm at that moment. She was curled up on her side, resting her head against something soft. The first thought to pop in her head was, _I don't recall the pillows being this comfortable._ Ah, whatever. She pressed closer to the source of that warmth, lightly snuggling against it. The sound of fabric rustling and a brief tearing sound caught her attention. _What was..._

She cracked her eyes open and blinked several times.Well, no wonder.

Shizuru was practically lying on top of Natsuki, her head resting in the crook of the wolf's neck, her left hand placed on her shoulder. Hot damn, now _this_ is what I call the beginning of a beautiful relationship. The wolf was lying on her back very stiffly, eyes wide with a look of incomprehensible discomfort, tightly clutching the bedsheets with her paws. That explained the tearing sound.

Despite the complete awkwardness of the position, neither of them budged an inch.

Natsuki felt as if she was strapped to the bed. She had never, _ever_ been this physically close to anyone in her life, and it was very unnerving. Au contraire, Gakuenchou, I happen to be enjoying the current mental image running through my head. Hee. Her eyes darted around the room, looking ateverything except for the woman that was for some really strange reason using her body as a makeshift pillow. Natsuki prayed to every god she knew (or at least heard about) that nobody would barge in to see them in that position.

Unfortunately, the gods happen to like having fun at her expense.

Her heart skipped a beat when somebody knocked rather loudly on the bedroom door and opened it three seconds later. _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh--_

"Yo, Gakuenchou, it's past noon and HOLY-!"

_SHIT._


	5. Chapter IV

**Chapter 4: Starts With An 'S'**

Natsuki really,_ really_ hated herself right now. Sweet Christ on a pogo stick, people these days have such bad timing. She didn't exactly imagine that Nao walking barging into her room only to see Natsuki and Shizuru in a very suggestive position on the bed would be the idealistic perfect wake-up call. But there's no way in hell she was going to let this get to her. Nope. Ain't gonna happen. Not today.

Nao gawked. _Well shit, they got off faster than I thought_. Shizuru stared right back, a hand clapped over her mouth. Though it didn't bother her that much, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. Natsuki on the other hand was using every ounce of self-control to not fall into a state of ballistic, batshit insanity.

_Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, think happy thoughts and take a very deep breath..._

"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt anything," Nao declared, getting ready to leave.

Natsuki jerked into a sitting position with enough speed and force to crack her spine, causing Shizuru to tumble onto her back, and shouted, "IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

"It's always what it looks like," Nao shrugged smartly.

As if things couldn't possibly get any worse, a certain fire chicken popped into the doorway, clutching that infernal spider in several layers of tissues. Natsuki's face fell like a fifty pound brick.

"Nao, would it kill you to keep that bug of yours chained up? Mikoto found it sitting on her head when she woke up."

Dear Lord, not on the head! Poor Mikoto. I feel her pain.

"Actually, spiders are arachnids, a sub-group of the arthropod family. Insects only have six legs while arachnids have eight jointed legs and may have a poisonous sting or bite..."

"Okay, okay, it's _not_ a bug, I get it already! Just lock it up in a cage before somebody steps on it. And another--"

Mai trailed off as soon as she noticed what was going on. Natsuki could feel her temper rising ever closer to a violent breakthrough. Blinking a few times, Mai came to her senses and shook her head, grinning insanely.

"Geez, Kruger, I didn't think you'd warm up to her THIS fast."

Natsuki gave her a "If you don't shut up I'm gonna kick your ass so bad you'll wish you never spoke in the first place!" look. Unfortunately, the other two furries were far too busy snickering amongst themselves to heed the warning. Shizuru, who was quite possibly the only one actually _using_ her common sense, slipped out of bed and snuck as far away from the beast's ever rising temper. At least she could tell this was about to get ugly.

"I didn't do what you think I did," the Kruger snarled through clenched teeth.

"Then why in the world did me and Nao find you two in such a compromising position?"

"Maybe she moved a lot in her sleep, shit happens."

"You SURE you're not lying?"

Let it go, Mai, just let it go...

"I'm telling the truth, just the truth, and nothing but the truth. Comprende?"

"I don't know, you seem awfully defensive and indignant right now..."

Mai, it's for your own good, shut up about it.

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"Who knows, maybe you unconsciously did something."

For the love of God, Mai, _shut up!_

"For the seventy fucktillionth time, NOTHING HAPPENED!"

"I'm starting to remember an old saying. Beware the beast, but enjoy the feast she offers. Kinda fitting, you know?"

It was nice kowing you, Mai. I'll be sure to send you some flowers.

"Tokiha, if you don't shut up right now, I will break every bone in your body, beat your flesh into pulp, roll you into a ball, deep freeze you, and then feed the shards to my cuddly pet mecha wolf for good measure!"

"I'm just saying that you could've somehow caused a space-time anomoly, use that opportunity to slow down time and get to know her, then perform the deed of hot steamy XXX, come back into this dimension and unfreeze time."

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY FRIGGIN' SENSE!"

"You know it does and you totally made hot passionate--"

_THWACK!_

Nao managed to snatch her pet spider just before Natsuki's large fist collided into Mai's jaw, propelling her to crash against the wall in the hallway, causing cracks to form up to the ceiling and finishing with a piece of plaster falling onto the pyro chicken's head. Shizuru and Nao gazed in shock at the wolf, who was currently breathing heavily from so much pent-up rage. Nao took a step forward and poked Mai with her foot.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that broke her neck," she remarked.

"Be thankful it's not _your_ neck," Natsuki spat, cracking her knuckles.

"You know something, I think Arika calling, I'll catch you later."

The fox darted off, not too enthusiastic about the prospect of being on the overkill-first-ask-questions-later business end of Natsuki's murderous hands and waking up in the hospital a week later to find that her spinal chord had been ripped out and used as dental floss. Natsuki let out a frustrated growl and rubbed her temples in irritation. _Shit, Kruger, shit. Tokiha was right, if I don't learn to control my temper I'll never be able to break the sp--_

"Kruger-san?" Shizuru spoke up.

"What!"

Shizuru held up both hands in mock defense and backed away. "I was just saying, we should take Tokiha-san to the infirmary."

Natsuki glanced at the unconscious bird. She didn't like Mai, but that didn't mean she wanted to kill her. She shrugged and muttered a low "Whatever" and slung the furry over her shoulder. Shizuru followed after her, partly to make sure if the fiery chicken was going to be paralyzed or not, and partly because she wanted to ask Natsuki about that argument from two minutes ago. After debating with herself for a moment, she lightly tapped Natsuki's shoulder. The wolf didn't turn to meet her gaze, but Shizuru could tell she was starting to lose her patience.

"What _is_ it?"

"I'm curious, what were you and Tokiha-san talking abo--"

Shizuru never got to finish her sentence, as Natsuki whipped around and used her free hand to clutch her throat, her claws digging into the sides of Shizuru's neck. The brunette reflexively gripped Natsuki's wrist and the wolf eased up her hold just a bit to keep her from suffocating. Natsuki scowled at her.

"You. Heard. Nothing."

She released Shizuru with a push and stomped off. Shizuru rubbed at her neck, feeling the claw marks marring her skin. Natsuki was definitely an unhappy person. But in spite of that violent temper, she kind of reminded Shizuru of a puppy. A very big, beastly wolf whose temper had a quick-burning fuse, but a puppy nonetheless.

* * *

So a psychopathic stalker and her bitch with a huge forehead walk into a bar...

"Oh, God, my head!" Tomoe wailed in a very nasty case of an egg/liquor-induced hangover. "I am never drinking that much ever again for the rest of my life!"

"You keep saying that, but I don't see you _doing_ anything about it," Miya muttered under her breath.

Tomoe's eye twitched and she picked up a nearby chair. "I'm warning you, Miya. One more word..."

As if on cue, the bar's western saloon-styled double-doors swung open, then slammed back into the man entering, eliciting a very loud and annoyed "God-FREAKING-dammit!". Sergey entered, rubbing his sore chest where the doors collided with his ribcage, and staggered up to the bartender.

"Water," he rasped.

"Okay, at least I have the decency to drink alcohol here, but just what the _hell _kinda dork drinks WATER at a bar?" Tomoe declared to nobody in particular.

"Me, that's who!" Sergey snapped. "I'd rather not kill my liver and brain cells, thanks. Besides, no woman in her right mind would date me if I were a druggie, and my daughter would hate me to death I turned into one. And another thing, aren't you a little young to drink liquor? You don't look a day over sixteen!"

Insert record-screeching-to-a-halt noise here. Nearly every occupant of the bar, most of whom were either very tall and somewhat hairy middle-aged drunks (and Shinso only knows if there are pedophiles about) or large-gutted truckers. Tomoe waved a hand about and cackled at the crowd in a very raspy accent, as if she just had cigarettes in her eggs for breakfast... for the past ten days or so.

"Don't let him fool you, I've been drinking for years! I'm short to begin with, but all the booze stunted my growth, so that explains why I look sixteen when I'm really thirty-two!"

"I can understand that, but what I don't get is how you've aged so well!" some random, barely sober trucker hollered.

"Diet and exercise, man!"

"Oh."

Sergey chugged down his glass of water and lowered his voice. "Okay, so why are you really here? I'm quite possibly the only one here who's even remotely sober, so I don't buy that story."

"You don't miss a thing," Tomoe hissed right back. "The only reason I'm in this shithouse is because I asked Shizuru-oneesama to marry me--"

"Actually, she didn't even get to say it," Miya interrupted.

_SLAP._

"Ow."

"So like I was saying, I asked Shizuru-oneesama to marry me, but she rejected me--"

"More like turned her down flat."

_SLAP!_

"Freaking hell, did it have to be the same spot?"

"LET ME TALK, DAMN YOU!"

"Right, sorry."

"So she rejected me, and here I am, wallowing in my depression."

"Well, good for Viola-san!" Sergey chortled. "She's no fool, I think we all know she'd never want to get married to some jailbait like you!"

Tomoe promptly grabbed a nearby liquor bottle and swung it at Sergey's face, sending shattered glass fragments and a fountain of bronze-colored liquid to the floor. Sergey fell out of his stool, rolled on the floor, slapped both hands on his now bloodied face and howled in agony as the booze stung his skin, as if exacting revenge at him for dissing alcohol.

"OH MY EVER-LOVING GOD IT BURNS! SOMEBODY PLEASE GET A DOCTOR, I AM IN DESPERATE NEED OF A DOCTOR! JESUSDAMMIT, IT BURNSSSSS!"

* * *

"Shinso forbid, Gakuenchou, one of these days you're going to kill the poor girl," Youko sighed. Natsuki had dragged Mai to the infirmary, where the now leopard-ified Youko-sensei was doing heaven-only-knows what, and tossed her carelessly on one of the beds, hollering for Youko to fix whatever was broken while Shizuru said something about being more careful about handling unconscious folks.

"Hey, she's still alive, isn't she?" Natsuki snapped. "Besides, it's her own fault, she brought it upon herself."

"It's your fault too, for losing your temper."

"Argh, shut up about it!"

"Tokiha-san's all right, just so you know. You just almost dislocated her jaw is all, so it shouldn't be too diffucult to handle. And I heard that _'I don't give a crap,'_ Gakuenchou."

"Will you do me one favor and SHUT UP!"

"Calm down, Kruger-san, you'll give yourself an ulcer," Shizuru remarked.

"Let's just be thankful she didn't give her a concussion or anything, or else she'd kick Gakuenchou's ass into next week."

"I'd like to see her try."

"Well, I'd better tend to Tokiha-san before Mikoto finds out and decides to have my head on a silver platter."

Natsuki always was the kind of person that didn't need telling twice. She stomped out and into the hallway, Shizuru right behind her. Natsuki stole a quick glance at her before averting her eyes back to their previous position. Contrary to what she said last night about not taking the time to remember people from school, she did recall the brunette's name sometime in her sleep, before Shizuru decided to use her as an oversized cuddly-wuddly blankie. She remembered it, back when Shizuru graduated. When was that, four and a half years ago?

_Starts with an 'S'... Shizuru, right?_

Shizuru chose this moment to say something. Awkward silences never got on her nerves, but if it was between her and the beastly principal, it was unbearable. Well then, speak and grace us with that heavenly accent already, woman!

"Kruger-san?"

"What?"

"Nothing. You're just very quiet, that's all."

"What, you like it better when I talk?"

Shizuru smirked. If Natsuki could be so easily caught off guard from a harmless little wink... oh, she was going to have _loads_ of fun living here. Whee!

"I just like to savor the tone of your voice. So deep and masculine, like a beast... such an attractive voice."

"I-Idiot, why would you say something like that!"

"Because it's the truth. I really do enjoy listening to Kruger-san's charming tones."

Red heat was painted all over the skin under Natsuki's fur. Right now, she would like nothing more than to bop this crazy woman upside the head with something blunt... but she couldn't do that. If they were supposed to develop a relationship of any kind, she would have to be patient and control her temper. Be a good girl, now. Speaking of which...

"MumbleNatsukimumblefinemumble..."

"Pardon?"

"I said 'Natsuki' is fine!"

Shizuru blinked.

"Natsuki-san?"

"ARGH, not like that! I said NATSUKI is fine, okay? No '-san' or whatever-the-hell, just Natsuki! NAT-SU-KI! Think you can do that-- oi, stop laughing!"

It was kind of annoying that Shizuru started giggling when Natsuki loudly inunciated her name and exaggerated each syllable. But the brunette couldn't really help it, seeing as no one was remotely as FUN to tease as the Kruger. She opened one eye, the crimson depths sparkling with mirth.

"Only if you call me by my name."

Shizuru expected Natsuki to adopt a blank look and then scowl and grumble. Instead, the beast folded her arms and glared at the woman, making absolutely sure that wolfish green would clash with deep red.

"If you say so, _Shizuru_."

Natsuki's mouth twitched, itching to grin smugly at the surprised look on Shizuru's face. The slightly wide eyes and barely parted lips were a priceless reaction; she only wished she had a camera to immortalize this moment. Almost as quickly as it came, Natsuki's Smuggity-Smug-Smug mood evaporated into unease as Shizuru's face reverted to that trademark tea-sipping smile.

"Natsuki remembered my name this time. Ara, I'm so flattered!"

"YOU DUMBASS!"

* * *

"Goddamn, that stings!" Sergey groaned while poking the cuts on his face with lightning-quick taps. "It feels like the first time I cut myself shaving!"

"You deserved it," Tomoe retorted coldly.

"Granted, but you could've at least hit me with a chair or something. Gawd, this sucks almost as badly as having a tarantula for a roommate in Gaderobe."

"Wait a sec, you were there?" Miya blustered.

"Yeah. I broke in when I came back from my trip to Aries to check up on Nina-chan--"

"Tell me something I _don't_ friggin' know," came Tomoe's reply.

"Right, so AS I WAS SAYING! I broke in, found Nina-chan to be perfectly fine..."

Sure, if you can categorize "turned into a furry" as being perfectly fine.

"...And then some beast shows up and locks me in the dungeon."

"Am I supposed to believe that?"

"Well, there's more to it."

Tomoe wondered if one of the truckers was inthe mood totell his cracky WTF stories tonight.

"See, I was freaking out because this spider the size of a Ducati ws crawing up the wall -- and I swear it was staring at me with those creepy heart-eyes -- when Viola-san shows up..."

Tomoe's head jerked around to look at Sergey so fast she ended up cracking it.

"Yeah, so what happened to her!"

"Cool your jets, Jailbait de Stalkero, I'm getting there. Now, after Viola-san comes over, that same horrible, monstrous beast shows up and starts talking like I wasn't there, which is really rude, and then they made a deal. Viola-san took my place to stay in the school forever, and then the beast had its pet mecha wolf kick me out. Though, the security system's been turned on, so I can't go back in and--"

"HOLY CHRIST, SHIZURU-ONEESAMA'S BEEN KIDNAPPED?"

"I wouldn't call it 'kidnapping,' but basically, yeah."

Tomoe let out a shriek of rage that nearly shattered every glass in the bar. Sergey and Miya, being the closest ones to her, had to shield their throbbing eardrums from exploding. Well, I can't really blame them, the freak's screaming to the point where she's hyperventilating with hellish fury, for crying out loud.

"GODDAMN IT ALL! I'MMA GON' FUCK THE BEAST RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SHIT! OH MAN, Y'ALL GONNA BE DEAD, BEAST-!"

_Poink!_

"Ow!"

"Got her!" Miya whooped, holding a blowgun. Okay, just where the hell...? Oh, forget it.

Tomoe slapped a hand on her shoulder, pulling out a tranquilizer dart. She stared at it for a second before her eyelids drooped and her face fell into an expression of peaceful relaxation. The green-haired psycho sat on the floor, curled into a ball and lay down on her side, fast asleep. You know, if she weren't such a sicko hellbent on destroying the planet just to get Shizuru, I'd say she's a pretty cute sleeper.

"Where'd you get that blowgun?" Sergey asked.

"Well you know, these things come in pretty handy when you work with someone like Tomoe," Miya shrugged, staring at the stalker who was now sucking her thumb.

"Ah, I see."

But the real question is, how long will Miya's tranquilizer supply last until Tomoe finally comes around to assault Gaderobe, guns a'blazin', and claim her prize? I fear for the fate of humanity.


	6. Chapter V

**Chapter 5: It's A Step In The Right Direction, After All!**

Otomes-in-the-making always considered Chie Hallard to be Gaderobe's uncrowned Prince of Bishoujo. Mainly because not a lot of Otomes could pull off a suave bishounen air so effortlessly, especially with that damn blue rose of hers. Everytime she cruised by, the underclassmen went a-swoonin'.

Then again, not everybody was effected by Chie's charm. And that's just one of the things that made Aoi Senoh so special in the pimped-out Pearl's eyes. Not only was the lovely young maid impervious to Chie's blue rose-induced flirting, but she also had that unquestionable kindness that was so very difficult to find these days. Besides, she always said that Chie would look good in a suit and glasses, and that would've been a massive ego boost if it weren't for Chie's cool, controlled confidence. Chie really did genuinely like Aoi, and she wondered what the infinitely kind brunette would say if she saw her now.

Something told her that Aoi wouldn't be all that bothered if Chie told her she'd been turned into a panther, but she couldn't tell if the thought was dead-on accurate or just wishful thinking. Chie couldn't think clearly anyway, as a piercing roar-like shriek had just erupted somewhere closeby. That somewhere happened to be in the next hall. To the left. Three doors down. In Gakuenchou's room. Muffled shouting and thuds echoed off the door, indicating that the beauty and the beast were having a conflict of sorts.

"GET OUT!"

"I'm sorry!"

"JUST SHUT UP AND--WAAH!"

_THUD!_

"OW! DAMMIT, MY FOOT!"

"Are you all right?"

"GET OUT BEFORE I HURT YOU!"

Chie stepped back and waited. Shizuru bolted out the door and nearly slammed it shut, pressing her back against it just as something hard (and most likely big) collided into the wood. The brunette was slightly flushed and had a very brief look in her eye that resembled someone who just had a little run-in with a rabid attack dog.

"Please, don't ask," Shizuru breathed.

"Wasn't gonna," Chie quipped.

* * *

_Damn her,_ Natsuki snarled to herself while fumbling with her tie. _What makes her think she can just go and prance around like she owns the place and just-- AAARGH, friggin' tie!_

Natsuki snapped and chucked the tie at the opposite wall. "Fine, dammit! I'll justgo on without the tie... AGAIN!"

The wolf snatched her blue jacket from her chair and draped it over her white button-up shirt and black trousers before stomping out. Maybe Duran was feeling bored and needed some attention today...

* * *

Duran wandered about the building. Bored, bored, freaking BORED. If his master had a pet dog, he wouldn't be nearly as bored as he was now. But then again, the dog would've been turned into a footrest from the spell, and footrests were no fun.

Nothing to do, nothing to do.

But that's where the guest came in. What was her name again, Shizuru? Yeah, that's it. Shizuru was pretty and nice, and seemed to be enjoying her stay here. Although,Duran wasn't sure if Shizuru was a dog person or not, but seeing as Natsuki wasn't around, it wouldn't hurt to find out. Alright, the mecha decided, time to seek out the target and initiate phase one of Operation Power Glomp.

A little more wandering, and -- speak of the devil! -- he found Shizuru walking up the same hall. Target is in sight, beginning phase two. Duran hunched down and waited for the opportune moment; he always wanted to do this. Shizuru took a few steps. Wait for it. Not yet. Almost. Aaaaaaand now!

The mecha pounced and shot himself at Shizuru's unsuspecting form from behind. Shizuru glanced behind her just to see a close-up of Duran's muzzle about a split second before crashing to the floor with a loud _THUMP!_ Duran stared at the shocked woman pinned under him. Then he started licking her face with his tongue. Aww. Just AWWWWW. Quick, somebody get a camera! Shizuru, despite being somewhat amused by Duran's surprisinglymischievous nature, sputtered and lightly pushed his muzzle away.

"Ahh! Okay, okay! Boy, when you want attention-- where are you licking? Cut it out, that tickles!"

Shizuru couldn't help but laugh when Duran playfully licked all over her face. Her laughter subsided when a dark shadow loomed over her and the mecha now preoccupied with her cheekbone. She inwardly panicked. Duran's ears twitched at the lack of mirth and looked up in confusion.

Heeeeere's Kruger!

Natsuki stared at the two. She didn't quite expect Duran to run into Shizuru, but the somewhat spoiled mecha would do nearly anything to get attention. Well, seeing as Duran had already found something to mooch attention off of (not to mention the fact that she was still pissed off at Shizuru for the earlier incident), Natsuki decided to take her leave.

Duran could practically smell the tension between the two. This peculiar behavior left him baffled. He was thinking, what gives? He thought Shizuru liked to hang around the beast. He knew one thing for sure, whatever was wrong had to be settled. He leapt off his "prey" and bit at the hem of Natsuki's jacket, tugging and whimpering a little. Natsuki looked down at him, glanced at Shizuru, and back to her pet again. Eventually, she put two and two together.

_Don't tell me Duran wants us to... You gotta be freakin' kidding me._

Duran could tell that Natsuki didn't want to cooperate, and decided it was time to bring out a weapon even deadlier than his cannons. He sat down, screwed up his bright arterial red eyes and gazed at his master with a look of wounded plea.

_Ohhh shit, _Natsuki mentally groaned. She oh-so-very passionately hated it when Duran used that thrice-be-damned puppy dog pout; he wouldn't stop pouting as cutely as possible until he got what he wanted. Seriously, cuteness can bea very dangerous thing. I mean jeez, with the face, and the eyes, and the AGH! Someone PLEASE tell him to stop being so horrifyingly cute! Natsuki didn't feel like being overwhelmed by almost two-hundred pound's worth ofcuteness to the point of going insane, so she stomped over to the still prone brunette and grabbed a hold of her arm, jerking her back up to her feet.

"You. Me. Talk. NOW."

Shizuru gulped.

* * *

Shizuru sat on the piano bench, sliding her fingers back and forth along the keys. Natsuki leaned against the paino and drummed her claws against it. Duran sat at the foot of Natsuki's monstrous bed, staring at the two. Her aprehension towards the wolf finally fading, Shizuru's face turned serious.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Natsuki blinked.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry. I apologize for walking in on you in the shower without knocking first."

...Yeah. That's what all the fuss was about. Let's take a look at how it happened, shall we? Set phasers to FLASHBACK!

* * *

Shizuru walked into the bedroom and glanced around. She usually found Natsuki lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, showering the enchanted rose with death glares, or leaning against the wall and staring out the window. But now the beast was nowhere to be seen. _Maybe she went out for ramen again,_ she logically deduced. Well, seeing as Natsuki wasn't around, she could take advantage of her roomie's absence and probably take a shower or something.

She made her way to the bathroom and opened the door, immediately greeted by a wave of heat. Natsuki had more than likely finished her own shower not too long ago. Shizuru closed the door, took a few steps in and noticed something dark out of the corner of her eye. Crimson eyes blinked a few times and widened in complete and utter shock.

_Oh, my God. Oh, my God!_

In the shower not even ten feet before her, obscured by the curtain, was Natsuki. She appeared to be pushing locks of azure hair out of her eyes, raking a hand through her fur to check for soap suds she might've missed. Satisfied, the wolf hunkered down on all fours and proceeded to shake herself dry, sending water to splatter against the curtain and walls surrounding her.

Shizuru was currently mentally screaming at herself to run. Run far away and as fast as humanly possible without breaking the sound barrier. Unfortunately, her feet had decided that now would be a good time to sit still and pose for a proverbial painting entitled, "_Graceful Amethyst Just Twenty Seconds Short of Getting the Living Hell Beaten Out of Her._" She was about to look down and see if her feet had been crazy glued to the floor tiles when Natsuki drew back the curtain.

_OH, SH-...!_

Silence. Shizuru felt a light heat forming on her cheeks that may or may not have been caused from the steamy room. Natsuki's jaw had dropped as low as it could go, showing off a long tongue and a full row of white fangs, and her bright green eyes looked about ready to pop right out of her head. Shizuru's eyes had unwittingly gained minds of their own and began to travel up and down the cursed one's still dripping wet body.

Natsuki's wolfish form seemed to have an unexpectedly well-built frame. Through the soaked fur, Shizuru could plainly see well rounded shoulders, finely built arms, a smooth stomach and (much to her surprise) nicely toned thighs. Goodness, if Natsuki were to become human again... insert furious blush and drool here.

It took three seconds for both women to realize that one of them wasn't wearing any clothes.

Natsuki let out a shriek that sounded more like savage roaring. Shizuru slapped one hand over her mouth and the other over her eyes, but dared to go so far as to peek out from between her fingers. Sometime in that instant, although how Natsuki managed to accomplish such a feat in just two or three seconds would baffle Shizuru for quite a while, Natsuki had draped a white towel around her body and was currently glowering at Shizuru with eyes that seemed capable of firing death rays.

"GET OUT!" Natsuki roared.

"I'm sorry!" Shizuru blustered, backing away and fumbling with the doorknob.

"JUST SHUT UP AND--WAAH!"

_THUD!_ Natsuki tripped on some of the water dripping from her sopping wet feet and howled in pain.

"OW! DAMMIT, MY FOOT!"

"Are you all right?"

"GET OUT BEFORE I HURT YOU!"

Shizuru darted out of the bathroom to avoid the various objects being thrown at her, repressing the urge to scream in terror.

* * *

Natsuki stared at Shizuru for a moment. She moved away from the piano to slouch against the opposite wall and folded her arms. Shizuru looked back at the piano and idly ran her fingers across the keys, absentmindedly playing a tune. Natsuki's ears twitched. She didn't know Shizuru could play piano, but she wouldn't say it out loud. Shizuru halted her tune and turned to look at Natsuki.

Silence. Though it lasted for a few short moments, it was more than enough to make Natsuki's patience snap.

"I still can't believe you did that!" she blurted out.

"It was an accident," Shizuru countered pointedly.

"If you had knocked first, this wouldn't have happened!"

"If you had the water running, I would've knocked."

"Uh… Well, you should learn to knock anyway!"

"Well, you should learn to control your temper."

Natsuki found herself without a backup response and growled angrily. Shizuru simply gave her an innocent smile. Natsuki growled again. It seemed to her that Shizuru's thrice-be-damned smile resembled that of a heathen kid trying to be all "Top of the day, Officer Krupke!" and claiming to have been doing nothing wrong in that smartass punk way when that kid knew _damned_ well she was up to no good.

"Don't give me that innocent kitten look! How the hell am I supposed to face everyone after going through such a humiliating experience!"

"Like this!"

Natsuki quizzically raised her eyebrows. Shizuru stood up, hunched her shoulders, twisted her face and bared her teeth in an outrageous imitation of Natsuki's facial expression and threw her head back to make hilarious _grrr-roar!_ howls.

Natsuki stared at her. Then she snorted and burst out laughing.

Shizuru smiled to herself. This was the first time she had ever heard Natsuki laugh, and it was actually a pretty nice sound. After a moment of chuckles, Natski sobered up and looked at Shizuru with a serious, almost angry look.

"I'm still gonna hate you for barging in like that."

"I know," Shizuru shrugged.

Natsuki moved again and flopped onto the bed. Shizuru followed suit, sitting right besidebeside her with an amused grin plastered on her face. Duran took this as a good sign and chose that moment to pounce onto Shizuru's lap.

"Oof!" the lovely brunette grunted as Duran collapsed onto her. "You're heavy, boy!"

"What do you expect?" Natsuki snorted. "Duran used to be my bike, he's supposed to be heavy."

"He's a needy one, isn't he? Always pouncing around for attention..."

"Eh, he probably just likes you or something."

"Does Natsuki like me?"

The wolf could swear her fur went all glow-in-the-dark. She snatched a pillow, swung it at Shizuru's pretty face and hollered, "YOU DUMBASS!"

Shizuru laughed and blocked the pillow with both arms, grinning maniacally.

"Natsuki is so mean! I just want to know if she likes me, because I like Natsuki."

Natsuki harrumphed and turned on her stomach. She gave Shizuru an unimpressed look.

"Don't expect me to use your thighs as a pillow," she remarked.

"Ikezu," Shizuru crooned, reaching behind Natsuki's head to scratch her pointed ears. Natsuki closed her eyes. Even she had to admit, Shizuru pampering her like this was very relaxing.

"Tea-sipping airhead."

"Puppy."

"I AM NOT!"


	7. Chapter VI

**Chapter 6: Dating and the Little Homo-Ramen of Horrors**

"So, uh, let me get this right. You're experimenting on the various stimulating effects of flower seasonings in ramen?"

"That's right."

"As insane as it is, it sounds like good blackmail material..."

"What was that?"

"I said it sounds like a good opportunity for profit-centric thinking."

Nao shrugged and watched on as Irina Woods nearly had to tie back her floppy rabbit ears to keep them out of her face while messing around with her little experiment thing. For some reason, that "stimulating effects of flower seasonings in ramen" thing reminds me of a doujinshi... I wonder why. The kitchen doors slammed open as a kangaroo (with her hair in two braids) in horrendous Gaderobe uniform hopped in with three seasoning packs in her hands. Paws. Whatever.

"Okay, I brought the seasonings, Irina-chan!" the kangaroo whooped.

"Ooh, thanks so much Arika-chan, you're the best! Alright, put them over there by the pot, please..."

"One year of being a furry, and I'm still shocked you didn't get turned into an ant, Arinko," Nao grinned.

Kangaroo Arika puffed her cheeks out and scowled at her oneesama. She childishly stuck her tongue out at the fox and turned back to her friend.

"So, what were you going to do with--"

_SLAM!_

"Nao-san! Big news!"

Akane Soir, in T-I-Double-Guh-Err mode, pounced on in and sat on the table, a huge grin bracing her tiger-striped face. Shiho walked in right behind her with a shocked expression.

"You're not going to believe what I just saw today," the crow declared.

"Your reflection?" Nao joked.

"No, you fur-brain! It's Gakuenchou and Shizuru-oneesama!"

"What about them?"

"I just overheard Gakuenchou practicing asking Shizuru-oneesama out on a date!" Akane crooned, practically bouncing where she sat.

It took three seconds for this to register in the two Corals' heads. Irina let out an ecstatic squeal while Arika just stood there for a few more seconds before the news equated in her brain. Beauty plus beast plus date. Do the math.

"OMIGOD THEY'RE GONNA BREAK THE SPELL!" the two screamed before pulling each other into a bear hug and jumping for joy on the spot.

"I guess that means I don't have to rot in here for the rest of my life, so whoo," Nao shrugged half-heartedly. "And I-- hey, hold it. They're going on a date? As in they're going to date here, in this school?"

"Well, have you ever seen a wolf in a nightclub?" Akane replied. "Gakuenchou's too stubborn to leave, and Shizuru-oneesama promised to stay here, so it makes sense."

"Uhhhh, Irina and Arinko, it might be a good idea if you two put that homo-ramen away for now."

"Wait, _homo_-ramen?"

Irina blinked. "But why-- oh. Right."

"What? Why do we need to put it away?" Arika asked.

"Hel-lo, to avoid getting the shit beaten out of us tomorrow morning if Gakuenchou or Viola accidentally have the ramen for dinner on their date. Am I talking to myself here?"

"I still don't get it..."

"Listen," Irina started. "We're experimenting with the _stimulating_ effects of flower seasonings in ramen, _right_?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, let's get this out of the way. Flavor one: Cherry Blossom. It's the purest flavor, if you will, and it sets off a friendly, innocent reaction. You with me so far?"

"Friendly, innocent reaction, got it."

"Good. Flavor two: White Rose. It's not as, eh, innocent as Cherry Blossom, but it can stimulate a romantic feel."

"Romantic feel, okay."

"Alrighty. Flavor three, and this is the baddest of the bunch. Black Orchid. See, what it does is trigger one's hidden lustful desires and it'll just keep on building until it practically explodes into a sansation that brings out your inner dominant primordial seme."

"Uh, dominant primordial seme?"

"Basically, if one of our resident lovebirds has Black Orchid flavor on a silver platter by accident, then--"

"We'll be in for one very, _very_ long night," Nao interrupted matter-of-factly. "With a lot of moaning, moaning, and more moaning, and then the two of them screaming out each other's names in ecstasy. That reminds me, how long does the effect last?"

"Well, that all depends on how much you've had. One serving lasts about an hour, give or take how much seasoning you put in it."

_Long enough to masturbate, then,_ Nao decided. "Okay then, we all know what the homo-ramen can do, now put it away. It's way more dangerous than finding your dad's porno magazines in a tackle box."

"What if it's kind of like an addictive drug?" Akane asked. "You know, like cigarettes? The withdrawel effects would be murder."

"Can I just ask WHY we're still talking about this?" Shiho retorted.

"Well, _someone_ has to mull over it!"

"Okay, I don't know about you, but I'm getting out of here before Arika decides to test the ramen for herself," Irina declared before scattering off like a bat out of hell.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arika blustered.

* * *

_How the hell am I supposed to do this?_ Natsuki mentally groaned. _I've never done this before, and I know there's no way I could stay calm to save my life. How should I phrase it? 'Oi, Shizuru, you wanna go out sometime?' ...Well, that was painfully straightforward. God, I feel like Wang in his pre-pubescent years. That's pretty low to sink..._

"Natsuki?"

The Kruger thought she was having a heart attack. She let out a startled yelp and jumped three feet in the air, paw pressed over her chest. Shizuru stood right behind her, smiling like always.

"God, woman!" Natsuki gasped. "Don't ever do that again, you scared the hell out of me!"

"Forgive me. Natsuki just looks so cute when she's thinking."

Natsuki scowled.

"I'm not cute."

"You are to me. Like a puppy."

"Stop calling me a puppy!"

"I can't help it."

Natsuki growled in irritation and spun around, arms folded over her chest, staring out the window. Despite not being able to see her face, she knew that Shizuru was still smiling at her. A little nagging voice in the back of Natsuki's mind was practically screaming at her to hurry up and ask her out. Her patience was already wearing thin, and we all know that nobody likes to put up with the little Jiminy Cricket from Hell in their heads, now do they?

"Oi."

"Yes?"

"Shizuru, I-"

Natsuki hesitated, her voice caught in her throat. Her mouth was suddenly very dry, and she licked her lips uncertainly. Okay, a punkass principal who was more than perfectly capable of shooting somebody's head off with a .44 without a second thought, is afraid of asking someone out on a date? Why is this scenario so familiar to me?

"I just- maybe..."

"Natsuki?"

The beast's ear twitched. _Chickenshit. That's what I am, chickenshit. I'm too friggin' scared to do something as obscenely easy as saying 'Will you go out with me?' Oh, how the mighty have fallen..._

Natsuki cleared her throat and whirled around to face Shizuru again. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, counted to ten, and gathered her wits. She wanted to go for a quick yet smooth advance, but in her still edgy state, it all came out in one jumbled blob of gibberish.

"Wangodatewime?"

Shizuru blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Damn it!" Natsuki cursed. "Okay, deep breath... calm down... gently... there we go. A-anyway, I-..."

Shizuru tilted her head and looked at Natsuki curiously. This big bad wolf definitely wasn't good with words.

"I, would you, I mean, do you want to go have, you know, dinner sometime, with me?"

Natsuki's eyes darted to look at anything besides Shizuru's face and they ended up landing on the rose just a few feet away from her. She never asked anyone something like this, and as far as her self-esteem was concerned, she thought she did a pretty decent job. A peal of laughter told her otherwise. Natsuki stared at the floor in shame and self-pity, a furious blush running across her face like wildfire. A hand found its place on her shoulder and Natsuki looked up to see Shizuru's grinning face. The woman was trying her very best to stop laughing.

"I'm sorry, you just looked so adorable saying that!"

"Whatever," Natsuki mumbled. She turned her head to look back out the window. _I'm such an idiot. I shouldn't have said that, I..._

"Ah... Anyway. My answer is yes."

"Huh?"

"Yes. You asked if I wanted to have dinner with you sometime, and I said yes."

Natsuki blinked several times. Her heart started pounding, but whether it was from excitement or not, she couldn't tell. She scratched the back of her head and tried not to smile, but her face wasn't listening to her brain at that moment.

"Uh, great, that's great! So, um, when do you want to..."

"How does Friday sound?"

"Y-yeah, Friday's good. Around, I dunno, seven-ish?"

Shizuru smiled.

"It's a date."

* * *

Erstin Ho stepped into the kitchen, her strawberry blonde cat tail sweeping behind her. She was hungry, and in the mood for something quick and easy. Ramen sounded good. She was just sad that Nina wasn't around, that way she'd make an attempt to ask the other Coral if she wanted to eat something with her. Then again, she was still upset that her beloved Otou-sama was kicked out before she could do something about it.

Well, it can't be helped.

She rummaged through the shelves and cabinets for a moment, and eventually found herself some ramen with a packet labeled "Black Orchid."

Oh, wait.

...Shit!

* * *

"I feel like I forgot something, but I don't know what," Arika declared to nobody in particular.

"Mmm," Nina grunted.

"Let's see, I cleaned Nao-oneesama's room, returned all the books I borrowed, swept the floor, cleaned the bathroom, had lunch, gave Irina-chan her ramen seasonings and-..."

The kangaroo froze. Realization dawned on her face, closely followed by horror.

"Oh... _crap_," she choked.

"What?"

Arika leapt off her bed and hopped out of their drom as fast her legs would allow, all the while repeatedly muttering a mantra consisting of "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!". Nina bolted right after her. If her roommate was reacting this badly, then whatever happened must've been pretty severe. Arika practically mowed her way downstairs and into the kitchen, slamming the doors shut in Nina's face. The lab had just barely snapped out of a starry haze when she heard Arika pulling off a George Lucas from within the kitchen.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Wha-what's going on!" Nina hollered, throwing the doors open.

Arika was sitting on the floor with a look of sheer horror. She slowly turned to face Nina, her neck jerking as if it couldn't move properly.

"The ramen..." she whimpered.

"Wait, wait, wait, this is all about RAMEN? You have GOT to be kidding me...!"

"No, you don't understand! That was _Black Orchid_ ramen! I've got to find whoever ate it right now, Irina-chan's gonna kill me!"

"Alright, cool. Just don't go dragging me into it."

As if on cue, the doors swung open for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that week, and a very disturbed Shiho entered. She gave the two a very serious look and pointed her thumb over her shoulder.

"Okay, either Arika forgot to put the homo-ramen away, or Erstin's going through an absurdly horny phase."

"Uh, _homo_-ramen?" Nina blinked.

"What's wrong with Ers-chan?"

"Nothing, really. Except for the fact that she practically tackled Soir and tried to make out with her."

It was said so matter-of-factly that it took some time to process. Somebody ate the Black Orchid ramen. Erstin tried to make out with Akane-oneesama. Something clicked in Arika's brain.

"Oh, _hell _no..."

* * *

"So you're telling me that Erstin ate some kind of yuri ramen called Black Orchid, which Irina was experimenting with, and tried to make out with Akane, is that it?"

"Basically, yeah."

"I've never seen Ers-chan like that before..." Arika murmured.

"For once, I agree with you," Nina grunted.

Youko sat cross-legged on her chair, chin on her palm, and stared blankly at the group who had an encounter with said possessed Coral. Akane's striped fur was nearly beet-red as she looked down at the floor, twiddling her thumbs.

"I tell you what, this is something else," the leopard declared. "In all my years here, I've heard stories of attempted murder, tentacle monsters in the pool--"

Shiho coughed into her fist.

"Eh, that was me."

"Go figure. Like I said, I've heard some wild stories, but I don't think I've ever heard of a yuri-possessed Coral."

"Hey, but it's true," Nao shrugged. "Soir, didn't Erstin try to snog you just five minutes ago?"

"Don't remind me," Akane mumbled ashamedly. "Although I really am grateful to Chie-san, for luring her into the locker room and locking her in."

"Actually, it looked more like she was seducing her in..."

Akane, Nao, Arika and Irina all turned to stare at Chie. The panther simply grinned and stuck her thumbs in the air, crooning a sly "Heyyyy." Youko raised her eyebrows.

"...Somehow, I'm not surprised."

"Can we PLEASE get back to the situation at hand here?" Nina demanded.

"Okay, I'll bite. How do you expect to snap Erstin out of her... intoxicated state?"

"Can I handle it?" Shiho grinned evilly.

"NO!"

"Tch, you don't have to _yell_..."

"I was kinda thinking about a tranquilizer dart," Irina suggested. "We can knock her out long enough for the ramen's effects to wear off."

"Where are we going to find a tranquilizer?" Arika asked.

In response, Youko stood up and walked over to a large cardboard box near her desk. She spun it around, revealing a piece of duct tape labeled "Tranquilizer Syringes: Do Not Open Unless in Case of Emergency."

Um, 'kay.

"Sweet," Nao smirked. "But who'll be the victim-- er, volunteer?"

"Don't look at me," Akane quipped.

"Oh, come on! I mean, one look at you and she was all over your ass faster than that boyfriend of yours."

"Leave Kazu-kun out of this!"

"Not to change the subject or anything, but did you see the look on Ers-chan's face?" Arika asked, looking around at everybody. "I thought she was going to die or something."

"Now that you mention it," Chie looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. "For a second there, I could've sworn she was suffering from sudden mononuklieptikan cardiac arrest syndrome."

"Dying of _WHAT_?" Nina hollered. If her roommate was going to die, Nina would have to slap a bitch.

"Chie-oneesama said she's dying of sudden mono-monkey-nuclear-war-cap-i-tan cardiac arrest syndrome!"

"I said, _mononuklieptikan_."

"She's not going to die," Irina retorted. "My experiments have confirmation of non-fatal side-effects."

"Oh, good!"

"Well, seeing as Hallard's obviously experienced in things like this, why not let her handle the situation?" Nao smiled sweetly.

"Why me?"

"What do you mean, 'why me'? Isn't it obvious? You can just waltz in there, seduce her for a minute, and then shove the syringe up her--"

"NO WAY IN HOLY HADES!" Chie yelled. "I can't take advantage of a minor like that, I'm dating Aoi, remeber?"

"And I'm with my Kazu, so count me out!" Akane shouted.

"YEAH, AND I'M DATING... THIS... uh... STICK," Shiho blustered, pulling her Maki-Maki Phallus out from nowhere. (O.o; Oh my.)

"...Where did that come from?" Youko questioned quietly, looking at her, terrified.

"Uh... good question," Shiho said, staring at the Phallus with a disturbed look, her left eye twitching slightly. She walked over to the door, opened it, and tossed the Phallus out carelessly.

"HOSHIT, MY EYE!" somebody screamed.

"Anyways," the crow coughed, slamming the door shut. She stepped away from it, whistling innocently, but then glanced back at the door in a terrified manner.

"Who was out there?" Youko asked, giving her an evil look.

"I don't know?" Shiho lied horribly.

The door opened again and in came Mikoto, clutching the Phallus in one paw and covering her eye with the other. She stomped over to Shiho and held the offending object for all to see.

"Is this yours?"

"Wha-no! Never saw it before!"

Mikoto promptly whacked Shiho upside the head with her own device.

"Liar," she hissed.

"Oh, for the love of-- if it makes you all happy, I'll do it!" Nina shouted, throwing her arms up in defeat.

"Wonderful!" Nao clapped. "But before you go on with your courageous little stunt, I have an idea."

"Make it quick..."

Nao leaned down and lifted Nina's floppy ear, whispering feverishly. Nina nodded her head a few times.

"Uh-huh... yeah... wait, what?"

"You heard me."

"But that's crazy. This is crazy, and you are crazy."

"You agreed to do it."

Nina scowled.

"You know what? You can _fu_--"

"Youko-sensei, do you think we can, you know, disguise the syringe to look like something else?"

"Oh, well that depends on what you want it to look like."

"--_until the handle breaks off and I shove it up your_--"

"Can we make it look something like, I don't know... a negi?"

"Negi? Green onion?"

"--_make you regret being born_--"

"Exactly. So, can we?"

"I don't see why not."

"--_and then you need to use tweezers to pull it out again!_"

* * *

Nina found herself staring at the locker room door with a tranquilizer syringe disguised as a negi. The look in her eyes was, to sum it all up, vengeance incarnate. You'd think she was trying to shoot lasers from her eyes and burn everything to the ground. And as for the negi, well... if it wasn't the only way to save her roommate from doing all sorts of unthinkable things during her current state, she probably would've destroyed it.

_Why did I agree to this again? I could've just kept my mouth shut like a good girl and let everybody yammer mindlessly for God only knows how long and Ers would eventually snap out of it. But NO, I just had to lose my patience and volunteer for this stupid thing. Jeez, Nina, would it kill you to zip it and keep it zipped? But NO, that's too much to ask..._

Aw, quit your bellyachin' already, just suck it up and take it like a woman.

Finally, she pushed the key that Chie gave her into the keyhole, opened the door and poked her head inside, looking around for any sign of Erstin. Thinking it was safe (for now, at least), she went inside and searched through the lockers, crouched down and sneaking the whole way. Think they play Splinter Cell in this alternate universe?

"Hello!" she called out. "Hello? Anyone here?"

No answer.

_She couldn't have left, the door was locked. And besides, there aren't any windows..._

Nina tightened her grip on the "negi" and made her way to the showers. If Erstin was still under the influence of that homo-ramen, there wasn't a doubt in Nina's mind that the other Coral would try to pull something outrageous.

_Damn it, Ers, where the hell are you? Hurry up and come out, I know you're hiding._

She heard something. It almost sounded like cloth being shuffled. Nina jerked her head around, scanning the shower stalls, and felt her heart beat a little faster.

"Ers?"

Her breath was coming quickly, most likely due to the... excitement of the situation. She grabbed the curtain of a random stall, squeezed her eyes shut and yanked it back. Nina took a second to control her respiration and slowly opened one auburn eye.

Nothing.

Nina's shoulders slumped and she threw her head back, heaving a sigh of relief.

_Oh man, my nerves are going haywire. Maybe I should've let someone else take care of this..._

"Nina-chaaaaan?"

PANIC.

Nina almost dropped the tool she was entrusted with and her body went stiffer than a cursed statue. Heat skyrocketed to her head as she felt two arms drape themselves over her shoulders. Nina ignored the blaring warning signals in her brain (_ohmygod, ohmygod no, this isn't happening_) and turned her head around, her neck jerking as if she couldn't move it properly. She came face-to-face with her blonde roommate, the cat's green eyes dark and glinting with desire.

_Oh, shit._

* * *

Nao glanced around the infirmary. Irina and Arika were occupying themselves with a card game, Shiho was rubbing her sore head, Mikoto was hovering over Mai's _still_ comatose body like a vulture, and Chie was leaning against a wall, staring at her blue rose with a nostalgic look in her brown eyes. She spotted Youko monkeying around with the back of a silent TV.

"Sensei, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get the TV to work, what's it look like?"

"Forget it. That thing's never worked."

"Just give me a second and I'll have it working!" Youko replied sharply.

Nao shrugged and looked down. Suddenly, she found her feet very interesting. They were cute little fox feet poking out from under her oversized beige overalls...

Youko turned the TV away a little so that the students wouldn't see anything. She connected the last wire, and the screen sprung to life. Her lavender eyes shot open when Erstin and Nina appeared on the screen. Then she realized that this was a security TV, not the one that showed various soap operas.

Well, at least she could moniter what Nina would do in the current situation, so what the hell.

The leopard thumped the side of the TV to see if she could get a better picture. Static shot out for a second, and reverted back to the previous image. The thrill of watching her favorite soap after one whole year paled in comparison to what Nina and Erstin were doing in the locker room right now. Not to mention the fact that Erstin was wearing nothing but a bathrobe several sizes too small.

"Hey, you got the TV working!" Irina shouted behind her.

"Well, who'da thunk it?" Nao remarked.

Youko nearly had a seizure when the Pearls got up and sat down on the nearby sofa.

"That the late movie?"

"Uhhhh, NO! It's a hard hitting political discussion program!"

Chie peered behind her. "They're talking about politics on Animal Planet?" Then her eyes widened in disbelief. "Oh my God! That's Nina and Erstin!"

"Nina-chan and Ers-chan are on TV?" Arika barked. "No way! Let me see, let me see!"

"Wow, things are starting to get interesting," Nao grinned.

"Uh... uh..." Youko prayed for a Schwartz soldier to burst in and demand to kill them all, just as a distraction. She stared at the younger furries incredulously before making a move for the switch. Suddenly, watching Nina and Erstin on TV didn't sound like a very bright idea. "Come on, we shouldn't be watching this."

"Aw c'mon, Sensei, have a little fun," Chie grinned, snatching the doctor's wrist.

"Are you high? What if something happens? It'll turn into child porn!"

"Hey, you're the one who busted your ass trying to fix the TV, so why not behold the fruits of your success?"

"I'll behold anything as long as everybody keeps their pants on."

* * *

"Uh, Ers-- I, wha," Nina stuttered. 

"I'm so happy," Erstin purred, resting her head against Nina's shoulder. "You've come to see me."

"W-wh-wha-"

One of Erstin's arms slid down to wrap itself around Nina's stomach while the other played with her pigtails. Nina struggled to swallow the massive lump in her throat as she felt her hair spilling down her back. The intoxicated cat let out a low "nya" and buried her face in the dark blue hair, breathing in the scent.

"Nina-chan smells so nice," she whispered softly.

Nina suddenly felt a light jab under her ribs. Another swiftly followed, and she fidgeted under the pokes. Without warning, Erstin slid a finger down her back. Nina let out a surprised squeak and jumped, shivering under Erstin's touch.

_Oh my God, why is this happening to me?_

Erstin resumed her merciless tickling and Nina's arms shot out to try and swat the evil hands away, dropping the syringe in the process. She felt a pair of lips press against her neck and froze, eliciting a sharp intake of breath. Gathering her wits to get a hold of something like control, Nina spun around and grabbed Erstin's shoulders, pinning her down on the tiled floor. If it was possible, her face flushed even more at the sight of Erstin in a very small bathrobe. She wished the cat had tied the robe up a little tighter, as she was revealing an indecent amount of cleavage.

_Okay, why the hell am I looking down there in the first place!_

Erstin's wrapped her arms around Nina's neck and pulled her down, embracing her, but not daring to kiss her. At such a close proximity, Nina could feel the heat radiating off her roommate's body, and she briefly wondered if it was healthy for one's body temperature to be so high. She shuddered as Erstin's breath caressed her ear.

"Do you know, Nina-chan?"

Nina tried to respond, but the breath caught in her throat prevented her from saying anything.

"There are only so many times I can say I long for you."

Reddish eyes shot open. Nina pulled away to look directly at Erstin's face.

"What?"

"A lily among the thorns," Erstin whispered, averting her eyes to look away. "All this time, you were the earth moving under me. I feel for you, Nina. Only for you. But..."

Her arms slid off Nina's neck, flopping onto the floor. Nina didn't move; she just stayed there, on her hands and knees, staring disbelievingly at the girl below her.

"You...?"

* * *

Shiho could only gibber at the scene unfolding on the TV. "Huminahuminahuminahuminahumina..."

"Damn!" Nao swore, staring eagerly at the screen. "And all this time, I thought Erstin would be the seme. Go Nina!"

"What's a seme?" Arika blustered.

"Oh. See, it's where two girls, or two guys for that matter, get under the covers and--"

"NOOOOOO!" Youko leapt up with her finger poised to turn the TV off.

"Aw, leave it on, Sensei!" Arika hollered. The other sofa occupants shouted out in protest.

"Yeah, leave it on!" Irina barked, scribbling in her notebook.

"Don't touch it!" Shiho cawed.

"This is so cute!" Akane crooned.

"I didn't know this place had the adult channel," Mikoto remarked.

"You turn that off, I kill you!" Nao yelled.

Youko face-faulted when she realized that the lot of them were more than willing to watch two jailbaits go at it in the locker room, although Arika probably didn't have a clue what was going on. She looked at Chie pleadingy.

"Chie, get a hold of yourself, you can't possibly be getting off on this!"

"Hey, it's your porn, I'm just here for fun," Chie joked.

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!"

The scream came from Akane, who was pointing at the screen with a gleeful expression.

"I just read Ers-chan's lips! She said, 'I feel for you, Nina'!"

"Awesome!" Nao whooped. "Let the smut begin!"

Youko looked at the ceiling and yelled, "GOD HELP ME!"

Almost as if He had heard her cry for help, a particularly large box fell from a shelf and collided into the TV, propelling it to crash down onto the floor. The screen flickered and turned to static.

"**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**"

"Huh, looks like we lost the signal," Chie observed. "Shame. It was starting to get good."

Everyone watched with complaints and moans of discontent as Nao began to pummel the TV. "Come on, work, damn you!" She grabbed the sides and rattled it violently. "Speak to me! The fox needs her medicine!"

Youko blinked. She glanced back up at the ceiling, clapped her hands together in a prayer fashion and mouthed a grateful "Thank you!"

* * *

"Ers?"

"But I know how you feel about your father. It does hurt that you only see him the same way I see you, but..." Erstin sighed, her dark green eyes watering slightly. "Even so, I'm happy that I can at least be your friend."

Nina was at a loss. First, Erstin was doing all kinds of intimate things, and the next thing she knew, she was confessing that she had feelings for Nina. Her words seemingly burned themselves into Nina's memory. A warm feeling blossomed into her chest.

_Happiness...? Were those my feelings just now?_

She didn't know what to say, how to feel. She always idolized her father, because he took her in when no one else would. Nina wanted to be a strong Otome for his sake. All that mattered to her was his happiness. But then, why did she feel such a warm sensation when Erstin confessed her feelings just now?

Nina didn't understand, and it scared her.

But it also bothered her to see Erstin in such a mood. Nina closed her eyes, as if in self-reflection. Reaching down, she pulled her roommate into a gentle embrace. She felt Erstin's breath hitch in her throat. Slowly, she removed one hand and reached for the syringe lying a few inches away. Picking it up, she carefully took aim, pointing the small, barely hidden needle at Erstin's arm.

"I'm sorry, Erstin," she whispered, before stabbing the needle into her friend's arm.

* * *

A short while later, Nina kicked the infirmary door open and walked in,cradling Erstin in a honeymooner's carry. Several heads shot up and silently watched her place the unconscious neko onto a nearby bed next to Mai's. Nina felt the eyes on her and looked at the furries still occupying the room with a quizzical expression.

"What?"

"How'd it go?" Nao asked casually.

"Oh, uh... fine, I guess..."

A deafening silence loomed over them. Nina started to feel a bit uncomfortable under all the scrutiny and inched her way back to the door. Suddenly, a round of applause exploded, startling her, followed by several whistles.

"That was some show you put up," Chie grinned cheekily.

"Yeah, we saw it on TV!" Arika added.

Nina's jaw dropped. _They saw...?_ Scowling ferociously at them all, Nina let out a roar of "PERVERTS!" and bolted out, slamming the door behind her.


	8. Chapter VII

**Chapter 7: To The End of a Beautiful Dream**

It almost became a routine for Shizuru to use Natsuki as a pillow. Although she couldn't really help it; Natsuki was very warm and soft in spite of her cold attitude. Shizuru simply lay herself against the beast's body, resting her head against the midnight blue fur. Natsuki always had such a gruff exterior, and it was difficult for anybody to see past that violent temper of hers, but Shizuru was all too aware of a kinder side beneath the fur and fangs.

Shizuru was surprised at first when Natsuki's arm would come out of nowhere during the night and wrap around her waist, bringing her closer. She got used to it after the second time this happened some nights ago, and she found it cute whenever the beast would curl protectively around her, enveloping the brunette in a blanket of gentle warmth. Of course, Natsuki would growl and deny this ever happening in the morning, her fur nearly glowing red.

Snaking her hand around Natsuki's neck, Shizuru scratched behind the wolf's ears. Natsuki's ear twitched and she grunted in her sleep, leaning her head back into the soft touch. Shizuru smiled.

_I know you hate it when I say this, Natsuki, but you really are a puppy._

* * *

Sunlight flooded through the windows, beaming down on Natsuki's face like an overly annoying five-year-old going all Mary Sunshine, shrieking at her to wake up and play. Or like Duran on one of his happy days. Natsuki growled and raised an arm to shield her eyelids from the accursed light. She was about to throw the covers over her head when she felt a small jab under her ribs. Natsuki blinked and buried herself under the blankets. The poke came again.

Poke. Poke, poke.

"Mphrgh," Natsuki grumbled, squirming under the relentless jabs. She opened one eye. Shizuru was looking at her with a small grin, crimson eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Ticklish, Natsuki?" she winked. Natsuki looked at her with a cold, unblinking stare.

"Don't even think about it..."

Poke.

"I said don't."

Poke, poke.

"Quit it."

Poke, poke, poke.

"Cut it out!"

Poke, poke, poke, POKE!

Shizuru, completely ignoring Natsuki's warning growls, launched an assault on the beast's ribcage, tickling her mercilessly. Natsuki's body convulsed, and she couldn't hold back the flood of laughter threatening to break free from the proverbial dam. Shizuru moved on top and continued to tickle her midsection, relishing in the booming guffaws she provoked. Natsuki pawed at the beauty above her in an attempt to stop the attacks and catch her breath.

"Hahaha--stop it! Wait, Shizuru, stop! Come on, stop already! I can't breathe!"

"Say please," Shizuru replied sweetly.

"No way-- Ahahahah! STOP!"

"Say it first."

Shizuru couldn't help but smirk. Natsuki was on her back, practically howling, utterly helpless against her. She moved her hands down to the beast's stomach, and Natsuki nearly doubled over in laughter. Finally screwing up her face, trying and failing miserably to look serious, she shot her paws out and grabbed Shizuru's shoulders.

"Okay, okay, PLEASE! I said please, you happy now!"

Shizuru smiled and sat up, allowing Natsuki a moment to catch her breath. The wolf brushed a hand through her hair and and gave the brunette a weird look.

"So, um, what was that all about?"

"Well, I know that Natsuki isn't a morning person, so I decided to give you an interesting start."

Natsuki blinked.

"Oh, uh... thanks, I guess?"

"You're welcome."

They sat in an almost awkwardly companionable silence. Natsuki scratched her ear uncomfortably.

"It's Friday, you know," Shizuru stated matter-of-factly.

"Uh, yeah..." Natsuki replied. _The date. I almost forgot about it. Shit._

* * *

"Hey, Wang-san!" Miya hollered, pounding her fist on the bathroom door. "Have you seen Tomoe around?"

No answer. She pressed her ear against the door, and she heard muffled singing mixed with the running shower.

"_I wear my suuuuunglasses at night… I wear my sunglasses at night so I can, so I can keep track of the visions in my eyes_!"

What the hell, he sings in the shower?

"_While she's deceiving me… it cuts my security! Has she got control of me? I turn to her and say: Don't switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no… don't masquerade with the guy in shades, oh no… I can't believe it! 'Cause you got it made with the guy in sha-_"

"WANG-SAN! Keep your day job!" Miya barked. She could hear Sergey's singing abruptly stop from the other side of the door.

"What are you doing up so early!" Sergey asked in a yell, trying to shout over the running water.

"I can't find Tomoe! Have you seen her anywhere!" Miya shouted back.

"What was that!"

"I said, have you seen Tomoe!"

"Still can't hear you!"

"So turn off the water!"

"What!"

"TURN OFF THE DAMN WATER!"

"Hold on, let me turn off the water so I can hear... I'll be out in a sec!"

Miya tapped her foot impatiently. About ten seconds later, Sergey exited the bathroom with a white towel wrapped around his waist, his blonde hair sopping wet and dripping water down his broad shoulders. Wang-san obviously knows how to take care of himself, I'll give him that much. The large-foreheaded one flushed an awe-inspiring shade of red and turned away to avoid looking at his bare chest.

"So, what do you need?"

"I was wondering if you saw Tomoe around."

Sergey blinked.

"I thought she was with you?"

"She was, but now I can't find her."

"Isn't she still zonked out from the tranquilizer darts you shoot at her on a daily basis?"

"That's another thing. I've almost run out."

"Well, in that case we're-- Jesus Christ Heart Attack Throat Constriction!"

Sergey shrieked and threw his hands up to remove a pair of hands that were suddenly strangling him from behind for no apparent reason. He whirled around, slapping a hand at his waist to keep the towel up, and behind him stood Tomoe, sneering in all her megalomaniacal glory.

"Honey, I'm home!" she greeted, spreading her arms out in a welcoming gesture.

And just for the record, I wouldn't touch her with a fifty-foot pole if she pulled that on me.

"Hold on, you were hiding in the bathroom?" Miya blustered.

"Uh-huh."

"While I was using it?" Sergey asked.

"Yeah."

"So then... aw, jeez, Tomoe!"

"What?"

"You mean you saw-"

"No, Wang, I didn't see you naked, how could I have seen you when I was hiding in a closet by the cabinet? Besides, seeing _Sergey Wang_ of all people in the nude isn't my idea of a pretty picture."

"Oh, good-- hey, wait a second!"

"At any rate," Miya interjected. "Tomoe, have you remembered to take your meds this morning?"

Tomoe blinked.

"Meds? What meds?"

"Oh, you know... your INJECTION?"

Tomoe stared at her cohort with a blank look. Then she realized what Miya meant by "injection". Well, it isn't exactly difficult to figure out, you know.

"Oh no, I'm not letting you tranquilizer-dart me again, Miya! That worked for the past five days--"

"Actually, it was for a week and a half."

"Whatever. Anyways, I'm not getting shot at again! I don't care if I have to hack my hand off and replace it with a chainsaw, I'm gonna march right into Gaderobe and bash that beast's brains right the frick in!"

"I'm shocked she even believed that story," Sergey remarked thoughtfully.

"Knowing Tomoe, she'll believe anything that even remotely involves Shizuru-oneesama," Miya shrugged.

"I s'pose so."

"HEY! Don't ignore me, I'm announcing my plans for revenge here!"

"Oh, right. Wang-san, could you please restrain Tomoe for me while I get my blowgun?"

"With gusto!" Sergey grinned, saluting and flashing her a Playa Smile.

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" Tomoe screeched, scrambling away. Sergey bolted and leapt after her, grabbing a hold of her ankle and slamming the psycho onto the floor. In a mess of cursing, kicking, biting and all-around thrasing from Tomoe, Sergey managed to drag her up and pin her against the wall.

"Miya, hurry it up!" Sergey yelled while pinning Tomoe's hands on the wall, just above her head.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Miya hollered back.

"SOMEBODY GET THIS FREAKIN' HUMAN TESTOSERONE DISPENSER OFFA ME!"

Miya had just dashed out of her room, blowgun in hand, and skidded across the hall when she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes had bulged to the size of saucers and her burning red face closely resembled that of a ripe tomato.

"Uh, W-Wa-Wan-Wang-san...?" she stammered.

"What is it, what's wrong?"

"I-it's your..."

"What? Come on, I'm losing my grip!"

"Your t-t-t-to-..."

"Dude!" Tomoe shouted, catching the Major's attention. Tomoe pointed her finger down to the area below his naval. "Um, ever thought of taking Viagra?"

"What?"

Sergey blinked and looked down. During the skirmish of trying to hold Tomoe down long enough for Miya to shoot her, he didn't notice that the towel had fallen off. I think I'll go wash my eyes out with turpentine now.

"Jesus Christ Unguarded Manbits!" he screamed, snatching the towel and wrapping it around his lower body. Tomoe, in a brief moment of shock, didn't take the opportunity to run away. Instead, she chose to poke fun at Sergey's pride and joy.

"Was it always that small?"

"SHUT UP!"

* * *

Natsuki's day went something like this: take a shower (with no interruption from Shizuru), get dressed, eat, stare at the wilting rose, and put up with Mai and Nao telling her to try on different outfits in search of something she could wear for the date while Duran watched the whole thing with great interest. Right now, Natsuki was wearing a simple black suit with a light blue button-up and a black tie, her dark hair tied into a ponytail at the nape of her neck.

"Try something else," Mai ordered.

"For the love of God, Tokiha!" Natsuki groaned. "How long have we been doing this? Just choose something and be freaking done with it!"

"Hey, it's your date! This is important!"

"I know that, but that doesn't mean you have to go overboard about it!"

"Just shut up and put something else on," Nao snapped.

Natsuki scowled and gave the two a very rude hand gesture before stomping into the closet. Duran snickered at the vulagrity. There was only one outfit left anyway, and Natsuki swore to herself that if it wasn't satisfactory, she would snap Mai's neck and use her carcass to beat Nao's brains into a bloodly pulp. Nao looked at the firebrand fowl strangely.

"Um, _are_ we going overboard about this?"

"Of course not!" Mai replied sweetly.

From somewhere in the cloest, Natsuki scathingly growled out, "Like hell we aren't!"

"Look, we don't have time for any mistakes." Mai emphasized her point by pointing at the rose. "It has to go perfectly. There'll be a fancy dinner, provided by yours truly, a trip to the ballroom--"

"Oh, _hell_ no," Natsuki moaned.

"Shut up! You want to break the spell, don't you?"

Natsuki's head popped out from the closet door. Nao and Duran didn't exist in her vision, despite sitting right next to Mai on the massive bed, as the Kruger was concentrating her death glare on the poor pheasant.

"You talk as if I care more about lifting the curse than about Shizuru herself."

Mai blinked. She had to choose her words carefully, or else Natsuki would find another reason to use her as a punching bag.

"I didn't mean it like that, I just--"

"Then do me a favor and take your bullshit somewhere else."

Mai found herself effectively silenced. While she couldn't help but wonder when and how Natsuki suddenly became so defensive about the whole spell ordeal, it was wiser to back off; the beast was already in a foul mood, and Mai knew better than anyone that it wasn't exactly smart to get on her nerves. A few moments passed before Natsuki opened the door. She wore a yellow vest over a white button-up shirt, black trousers, and a fancy blue jacket.

"If this isn't good enough, I'm snapping both your necks," Natsuki stated.

"Ooh, scary scary!" Nao snickered.

"Fine, it's good enough," Mai shrugged. "You happy now?"

"Yes, very. Now can the two of you leave me alone? Please?"

"Fine, sure, whatever," Nao shrugged, jumping off the bed. "Come on, Tokiha, let's mosey."

Mai nodded and followed her out the door, Duran close behind her. Then she turned back to face the wolf and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Good luck, Kruger! Play nicely, now!"

"GET OUT BEFORE I PUNCH YOU IN THE OVARY!"

* * *

Natsuki fiddled with her tie uncertainly. She wondered if this was all a bad idea, that she should've just taken things a little slower. But then again, her common sense would most likely come back the next morning and bite her in the ass. Her heart was thundering in her chest, and she feared that something might go horribly wrong.

Suddenly, a pair of hands reached up from behind her, covering her eyes.

"Guess who," whispered a heavily accented voice.

"Stop screwing around, Shizuru," Natsuki snapped, abruptly turning around. Her breath caught in her throat. _Oh my God_.

Shizuru stood behind her in a form-fitting golden dress that flowed regally below her waist, her brown hair in an elegant bun, gazing at the wolf with a playful smile. Natsuki stared at her in slack-jawed, wide-eyed astonishment. She was absolutely sure she had never seen a more beautiful woman in her life, and she allowed her awestruck eyes to scale up and down the woman's body.

"Natsuki, my face is up here," Shizuru joked.

Natsuki stammered incoherently and stood rigidly, scratching her ear as she somewhat reluctantly looked away from the captivating beauty. Because of that, she didn't notice Shizuru's coy grin.

"By the way, you're drooling."

"Wah-!"

Natsuki feverishly rubbed her fist at her mouth, blushing profusely. She paused when she didn't feel anything along her lips...

"Just kidding."

"Shizuru..." Natsuki growled.

"You're looking very handsome tonight," Shizuru declared, eyeing the beast.

"Uh, thanks. Y-you look, um, great, you look great."

_Dumbass!_ Natsuki mentally yelled. _Are you kidding, she looks freakin' gorgeous!_

"Thank you."

Natsuki cleared her throat. "So, uh, you want to go and, eh, get something to, y'know, eat?"

Oh, yeah, right. Real smooth, Romeo.

"All right then," Shizuru chuckled, hooking her arm through Natsuki's in an intimate fashion. "Let's go."

The beast felt her heart skip a beat.

"Y-yeah."

* * *

"I'm bored," Arika declared from right out of nowhere. She was sitting in Nao's room with Nina and Erstin, watching her oneesama use an old sock to play tug-of-war with Duran. Chie, having absolutely nothing to do, just leaned against the wall and stared out the window. Meanwhile, Gakuenchou and Shizuru-oneesama were on their date, and no one in their right mind would go and screw it up.

"So do something about it," Nina grunted boredly.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I want to watch the date, and Gakuenchou'll get mad if she'd find out."

"Mad?" Nao laughed, tugging the sock a little harder. "That's an understatement, kiddo. If she catches you watching her snuggle or whatever with Viola, she'll put you in a coma."

Duran growled in agreement.

"I think it's cute," Erstin remarked. "Gakuenchou can finally spend some time alone with Oneesama..."

Nina looked at her friend uncertainly. She could see the veiled longing in Erstin's viridian eyes plain as day. Fortunately for her, the blonde had no recollection of the "Homo-Ramen of Horrors Incident", as dubbed by Chie. She couldn't help but guiltily wonder if she was always so blind to Erstin's affection for her.

"Yo, Nina, you alive in there?"

Nina's ears twitched.

"Huh?"

"You feeling okay?" Arika asked, hopping over and placing a hand on Nina's forehead. The lab gruffly pushed her paw away and scowled.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking about something."

"About what?"

"None of your business!"

"Touchy, aren't we?" Nao grinned before averting her attention to the mecha. "Oi, don't go ripping it up, okay? I can't let you play with _all_ my clothes, you know."

Duran simply tugged rather forcefully, tearing the sock.

"Oh, for..."

"In any case," Chie declared. "It'd be wiser not to interfere with them on their date."

"Isn't that what I said just two minutes ago?"

"Shut up, Juliet, you're just jealous because Viola-san's gotten so much closer with Gakuenchou than you'll ever be."

"Wha-WHAT!" Nao shouted, jerking her head to gape incredulously at the panther. "Are you high, Hallard?"

Chie waved her paw about as if Nao's sudden outburst was insignificant. "Don't kid yourself, foxy. I seem to recall you outlining Gakuenchou's name in little hearts when you were still a little Coral."

_Oh crap,_ Nao thought, suddenly very thankful that her fur was red enough to make the blush on her face seem nonexistent. So she had a crush on the violent principal when she was younger, big deal. She got over it by her third year at Gaderobe.

"Nao-oneesama, is that true?" Arika asked, her sky-blue eyes impossibly wide. "You like Gakuenchou?"

"Look, I was young and stupid. So what if I thought Natsuki Kruger was the coolest person ever, so what if I thought she was a total badass, so what if I had a minor crush on her. _So what_? Who doesn't have a crush on a teacher at least once in their lives?"

Chie looked at her, unconvinced. "Okay, I'll buy it. But admit it; you're just DYING to know what those two are doing."

"No, I'm not just DYING to know what they're doing," Nao retorted, rolling her eyes. "What they do is their business. I have no right to encroach on their personal issues."

"Granted, but you know you want to..."

"You trying to get me killed or something?"

"Oh come on, Gakuenchou would never kill a student. You make it sound like she's going to hack you up with a butcher knife while you're in the shower."

"I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't make a trophy out of me."

Chie stared at her. Brown eyes locked with lime green, and suddenly, a mischievous grin snaked across Chie's face.

"Chicken," she stated.

Silence.

"...What did you say?" Nao demanded quietly.

"You're scared," Chie grinned. "Scared that something will go wrong between them, and you might even end up living the rest of your life as an animal."

Nao's left eye twitched. "I'm not scared, and I can prove it."

"How?"

"I'm going to go see what they're doing."

Nao let go of the torn sock and stood up. She gave Chie a scathing look.

"I hate you, you know that?"

"Meh," Chie shrugged nonchalantly.

The fox scowled and turned on her heel, slinking out of her room and into the dark hallways with a single thought in her mind.

_God forbid, if Kruger catches me, I am dead where I stand._

* * *

Natsuki thanked God that dinner went well. Mai had certainly outdone herself; Natsuki didn't even know where to begin if someone asked how things went. They had managed some polite conversation (which took quite some effort for the Kruger, mind you) about the little things, and some other things the beast couldn't quite remember.

...Well, okay.

She couldn't think properly at the moment anyway. As soon as they'd finished eating, Shizuru had practically dragged her into the ballroom, winking playfully and asking Natsuki for a dance. Natsuki felt a little better about the ordeal, as they were the only ones present and she wouldn't have to worry about embarrassing herself.

After leading them into the center of the room, Natsuki gulped and gingerly placed her large hand on Shizuru's slender waist. Shizuru gripped Natsuki's shoulder and gave the wolf a teasing smile. Natsuki glared, blushing slightly.

"W-What?"

"I just find Natsuki cute when she's nervous."

"I-I'm not nervous."

"Then why is your face all red?"

"It's not red!"

Shizuru laughed and Natsuki just grumbled. Taking the brunette's free hand with her own, Natsuki lead them into a dance, albeit apprehensively. She was taking care not to step on Shizuru's feet as they rhythmically swayed in a circle. Shizuru followed along, a bit surprised that Natsuki was easy to dance with. Well, you learn something new every day.

Natsuki noticed how Shizuru just kept staring at her, and she couldn't figure out for the life of her why somebody would want to stare at the face of a beast. Unnerved by Shizuru's relentless stare, she cleared her throat a bit to get the woman's attention. Shizuru snapped out of whatever haze she was in and blinked.

"What is it?"

"Uh, n-nothing," Natsuki grunted, trying her very best to sound nonchalant. "Just try not to be so… quiet. It's making me paranoid."

"Oh, forgive me. I was just surprised how Natsuki is so easy to dance with."

"Are you saying you thought I couldn't dance!"

"Actually, I didn't think you could dance so well."

Natsuki suddenly chose that instant to swing Shizuru away, holding on to her with one hand and leaning back a little. Shizuru blinked again, and Natsuki smirked. In an effortlessly fluid motion, the wolf pulled her back into her arms and dipped over. Shizuru could feel herself falling and her arms shot out to wrap themselves around Natsuki's neck. Time stopped at that moment. Shizuru stared at the wolfish face just inches away from hers. Natsuki was bowed over her, paws on her waist with a firm but gentle grip to keep her from hitting the floor.

At such a close proximity, Shizuru was having difficulty figuring out what Natsuki was feeling. Her autumn red eyes locked with Natsuki's luminous emerald ones, as if trying to decipher what she was thinking about. The beast swept her back up to her feet and got back to guiding them in their private dance. They didn't bother going back into the previous position; Natsuki continued with both hands on the woman's waist, and Shizuru with her arms around the wolf's neck.

It didn't really botherShizuru that their bodies were slightly pressed together, and she didn't seem to mind that their faces were close enough to touch. She just kept moving, staring into Natsuki's eyes. Shizuru could sense the contentedness within the viridian depths of Natsuki's eyes, and it almost seemed to melt the beastly appearance away. Entranced by the beauty she found in those wolfish eyes, Shizuru pressed closer.

They stopped.

Shizuru sensed a faint pink blush invading Natsuki's cheeks as she strengthened her grip around her neck. The wolf's hold on her waist tightened, pulling her even closer. Shizuru threaded her fingers through the blue-black hair and to the back of her head, bringing her down. Natsuki's heart pounded in her ears like a drum as she watched Shizuru part her lips, pulling her closer still. Instinctively, Natsuki closed her eyes as Shizuru's lips slightly brushed against her own.

"Natsuki?"

Natsuki blinked and snapped out of her daydream.

"Huh?"

"Why don't we go out on the balcony? It's a beautiful evening."

Natsuki cleared her throat and scratched her ear. "Uh, s-sure, let's go."

Shizuru smiled and took Natsuki's hand, leading her outside onto a marble balcony. Stars glinted the azure sky like diamonds, surrounding the full moon. Natsuki could hear a dog or a wolf howling in the distance. Shizuru looked at her, grinning.

"Was that a friend of yours?" she asked jokingly.

"Nah," Natsuki shrugged. "I'm a lone wolf."

"Apparently," Shizuru chuckled, reaching her hand up to scratch behind Natsuki's ear. Natsuki instinctively leaned into Shizuru's hand. She didn't understand why this woman had such an effect on her.

"You always treat me like a dog."

"Ara, is Natsuki not my pet?"

"No, especially not when you put it like that!"

"Natsuki is no fun," Shizuru pouted. Natsuki snorted, rolling her eyes. Shizuru moved her hand to caress the wolf's jawline, smiling in amusement when Natsuki's eyes widened and almost immediately drooped under the contact, as if in a trance. "Good puppy."

Natsuki's eyes snapped wide open. "Stop calling me a puppy!"

"Can't help it!" Shizuru laughed, poking Natsuki on the nose. Natsuki growled and turned away to look over at the sky. Despite Shizuru constantly teasing her at any chance she got, Natsuki couldn't help but feel, as nervous as she was, content in her presence. They stood in an almost companionable silence, just watching the stars.

A cool breeze blew in, and Natsuki shuddered. The little nagging voice in her head told her to offer Shizuru her jacket in case she was cold. Swallowing a sudden lump in her throat, Natsuki shrugged the blue jacket off and placed it over Shizuru's shoulders. The brunette looked up at her in surprise. The beast coughed into her fist nervously.

"I, uh, thought you might be cold."

"How sweet," Shizuru smiled, and Natsuki stared at her feet, blushing. Shizuru slipped her arms through the baggy sleeves and moved closer to Natsuki, looping her arms around her elbow.

"Shi-Shizuru? What are you--"

"Ara, it's cold out here, so..."

"Umm... yeah..."

Shizuru let her head rest on Natsuki's shoulder, and her smile widened when she felt Natsuki fidget.

"Besides, Natsuki gave me her jacket to keep me warm, but she must feel cold too."

"I-I have fur, so I'm not really cold..."

"Even if it's through your fur, you cans still feel my warmth, can't you?"

"...Yeah, it's warm..."

Shizuru smiled. "I'm glad."

Natsuki used her free hand to rub the back of her neck. She looked down at Shizuru uncertainly.

"Umm... Shizuru?"

"Yes?"

"Are you... uh, you know, happy here... with me...?"

Shizuru locked her eyes with Natsuki's. She raised a hand to trace her slender fingers over Natsuki's face, feeling the heat radiating from the wolf's cheeks.

"I am happy here with Natsuki. You've been good to me, when you didn't have to be."

Natsuki felt her heart flutter under Shizuru's touch, her gentle words. She raised a paw and placed it over Shizuru's hand, pressing it against her cheek.

"Shizuru..."

Suddenly, Natsuki heard something.

"There you see her, sitting there across the way, and you don't know why, but you're dying to try, go on and kiss the girl..."

Natsuki's eyes flared. "JULIET NAO ZHANG-!"

* * *

"We're going to need a bigger blowgun," Sergey stated, wiping some sweat off his brow. After much trial and error, he and Miya had managed to lock Tomoe in the bar's cellar, but only after Miya shouted out of nowhere, "LOOK, ONEESAMA'S IN THE CELLAR!"

"Gee, ya think?" Miya retorted.

Meanwhile, the bartender leaned over to a long-haired trucker and muttered, "What in the hell are those three doin'?"

The trucker shrugged and replied in a hoarse voice while drawing circles in the air, "See, the-the guy, what happened was, is-is-is, you know, over here is part of the joke and the foreshadowing over there, and boom, that's where it is in the middle."

"...Uh, 'scuse me, but did anyone ever say you talk like John Madden?" Sergey asked, staring at the trucker in awe.

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

From behind the cellar door, Tomoe hollered in her raspy disguise voice, "Who the hell is John Madden? Why's this jackass drawing circles in the air? This is the stupidest crap I've seen all night, this is terrible. Buy some props, I hate mime, miming is for losers."

A pause. In her moment of stress, Tomoe held up the index and middle fingers, forgetting that she didn't even have a cigarette in her hand.

"...Apparently I don't even have a cigarette here. I can explain this, I have carpal tunnel. So twenty years ago I was always saying peace, fifteen years ago I was a hand model for the international symbol of scissors, and ten years ago I was always doing Little Bunny Foo-Foo."

Tomoe picked up a shovel she found leaning against the wall and held it up like a baseball bat, taking a few practice swings to loosen herself up.

"Little Bunny Foo-Foo, hopping through the forest, picking up the field mice and--"

_CRACK!_

"--bopping 'em on the head."

"What, no obscure horror flick reference?" Sergey asked, staring at Tomoe's face through the hole in the door.

"She's crazy enough as it is, Major," Miya replied.

As Miya proceeded to check her pockets, Tomoe stuck her arm out the hole and unlocked the door, pushing it open. As soon as the door slammed against the wall, Tomoe charged out with a barbaric yawp.

"YOU FRIGGIN' BEAST, HERE I COME!"

...well, shit.

* * *

"Hey, uh, Shizuru?"

"Yes?"

Natsuki sat on the bed, watching Shizuru dry her hair with a towel. The brunette walked out of the bathroom, dressed in a silk nightgown, and climbed onto the massive bed. I can't get over how freakishly huge the damn thing is.

"I... I'm sorry that Zhang had to come and screw everything up."

Shizuru smiled and patted Natsuki's head.

"It's all right. I'm happy to have spent some time alone with Natsuki like that."

"Uh, you're not mad?"

"Of course not."

"Oh, thank God!"

Shizuru chuckled moved closer, lying against Natsuki's body. For a moment, they didn't do anything. Then, Natsuki leaned over to the nightstand and clicked the lamp off.

"Well, 'night."

"Goodnight."

Natsuki felt Shizuru cuddle and instinctively wrapped an arm around her, bringing her closer. Her brain replayed what Shizuru had said earlier. She was happy here with Natsuki. The wolf closed her eyes and smiled to herself. Lying here with Shizuru curled against her, she felt... good.


	9. Chapter VIII

**Chapter 8: The Devil Went Down to Gaderobe**

Natsuki's eyes opened a crack and found herself waking up to see a sleeping Shizuru, face inches away from hers. She considered nudging the brunette's shoulder and telling her to wake up, but seeing her like this pushed the thought to the back of her mind. Natsuki raised a paw, hesitated, and brushed her claws against the sleeping woman's face, taking care not to scratch her. Shizuru's slow, steady breath tickled her nose.

Feeling a little bold, Natsuki cupped Shizuru's cheek and let a thumb caress her lips. They were smooth and warm, and part of the wolf was tempted to lean over and kiss her. Natsuki's face promptly burned fiercely as she mentally screamed at herself, _What am I thinking!?_

Suddenly, Shizuru's eyes opened. Natsuki froze in place; in that instant she had almost forgotten that her hand was still on the beauty's face.

"Good morning," Shizuru smiled.

_The hell?_ Natsuki blinked. _I thought she was going to tease me for sure. _She quickly sat up and cracked her neck. "Um, yeah, morning."

"I'm so happy to have woken up like that," Shizuru sighed dreamily. "Natsuki's hands are so soft and warm..."

Natsuki scowled, flushing slightly. "Oh, shut up already!"

"Don't be so angry, I just love seeing Natsuki blush. It's so cute."

Natsuki wasn't amused. She grabbed a hold of Shizuru's shoulders and looked into her eyes.

"First of all, I'm not cute. Get it through your thick head. Secondly, why the hell do you keep saying things like that?"

Shizuru blinked innocently. "Things like what?"

"Quit playing dumb! I'm talking about you telling me things like I'm cute, warm, soft... why do you do that?"

Shizuru smiled. Sometimes she wondered why she found Natsuki's expressions so endearing. She always got a kick out of messing with the beast's on-again off-again temper; the blushes and incoherent mutters were too adorable for words, and the loud outbursts never failed to make her chuckle. But sometimes, whenever Natsuki did something like hold her close, she'd find it rather difficult to think properly. To be honest, Shizuru had a hard time keeping her mind from wandering to dangerous places during their first date last night.

The brunette raised a hand and brushed her palm against Natsuki' cheek. She leaned closer, and almost chuckled as she felt that cute blush attacking the wolf's face.

"Because I like Natsuki," she whispered into her ear.

Natsuki's heart skipped a beat. _What does she mean by...?_ The beast was about to gather her wits and voice out her thoughts when she felt Shizuru's lips press gently against her cheek.

Shizuru pulled away at smiled at the dumbstruck look on Natsuki's face. Natsuki just stared at her, eyes wide, mouth gaping open, blushing furiously.

"I think I'll go take a shower," Shizuru said mildly, hopping out of bed and walking into the bathroom. Even after the door had been shut, Natsuki didn't move an inch. It took her a moment to let her mind process what just happened.

_She kissed me. Shizuru Viola just honest-to-God _kissed_ me._

Natsuki blinked. She looked over at the bathroom door and could hear the water running. A small smile slowly crept cross her face as she held up a paw to gingerly touch where Shizuru had kissed her.

_So warm..._

* * *

"You did WHAT?!" Mai screamed.

"I said I went and crashed the date," Nao replied coolly.

Duran watched on as the human feather-duster screeched at the bored fox. Personally, he didn't understand why Nao was so devil-may-care about it; everyone and their mothers knew how dangerous Natsuki could be when she got pissed off. He just hoped that either Shizuru or Natsuki would have time to play with him.

"You little sneak! What did you do that for?! You're lucky Kruger didn't skin you alive! Why aren't you horribly beaten and in the infirmary, anyway?"

"Because Viola just cracked up and asked her not to freak out. I'm surprised that she didn't pop up and kill me in my sleep, though... Maybe Viola kept her up all night."

"You might want to put a cork in it, Nao," Mai quipped, shooting a glance into the hallway. The beast in question was striding their way, humming aimlessly. While Duran jumped to his feet and wagged his tail in excitement, Mai and Nao exchanged scared looks. They had never seen Natsuki so... well, _happy_.

"...Hey, Tokiha, why don't you go ahead and ask what happened to her last night?" Nao muttered after a moment of uncertainty.

"Hopefully she won't bite my head off," Mai retorted, stepping up to the uncharacteristically jovial wolf. "Hey, Kruger."

"Yo," Natsuki shrugged nonchalantly, a small grin on her face.

_Okaaaaay, I'm officially freaked out now_, Mai thought to herself. "Say, Kruger, what happened to you last night?"

"Duh, I took Shizuru out on a date. You know that. Did you hit your head or something, Tokiha?"

Even as Natsuki was saying this, she was _still_ grinning. Nao wondered if Mai had accidentally used some leftover homo-ramen seasoning for the dinner last night.

"I know that! I meant to say, did something happen AFTER the date?"

"After? Oh..." Natsuki kneeled down to pet Duran's head, her grin widening ever so slightly. "I guess... something good..."

"Come on, don't just say that," Nao piped up. "What happened to you?"

"I'm not saying anything more than that."

Silence. Disturbingly enough, Natsuki didn't seem bothered in the least by the gawking she was receiving. _It's kinda weird, but I'm not worried about that right now. It's almost as if..._ she touched her cheek with her free hand, still feeling some remnants of warmth from Shizuru's lips. _I feel lighter..._

"Oh. My. God," Nao gaped. The beast lazily glanced at her.

"...Wuhh?"

"I don't believe it! She actually did it! No freakin' way!" the fox crooned as if Natsuki were a baby and had just said her first word. Mai looked about ready to faint. She opened her mouth to say something, but all she could do was point at the principal, her bright violet eyes bulging with shock. Natsuki stared at them incredulously.

"What are you talking about?"

"Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-..." Mai tried to stammer something out.

"Holy crap, Gakuenchou, I didn't know you had it in you!" Nao whooped, slapping Natsuki's arm. "So tell me, who was on top? C'mon, don't be shy!"

Natsuki thought her eyes almost popped right out of their sockets. She glanced at Nao, then at the stuttering Mai, and blinked. Finally, it clicked.

"W-WHAT THE CHRIST!" the beast roared. "WHAT KIND OF CRACK ARE YOU SMOKING?!"

Nao's ear twitched.

"...You didn't take her to bed?"

"NO! I mean, we do share the same bed, BUT I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! NOT LIKE _THAT_! Jesus!"

"Oh..." Nao laughed nervously. "But you were acting kinda weird, so I thought Viola made you her love pup."

Natsuki slapped her forehead. "Rrrgh! It figures YOU would take it that way!"

"But I gotta ask... what was up with you, anyway? Just two minutes ago, you looked like the happiest mutt in the world."

"Like I said, I'm not saying anything," Natsuki growled, folding both arms over her stomach. Then, as an afterthought, she added, "By the way, I haven't forgotten that little prank you pulled last night."

"Yeah, what about it?" Nao asked.

Natsuki gave her a dangerous look. "If you ever pull something like that again then so help me God, there _will_ be a foxtail hanging from the rear view mirror of the new bike I ordered just a while ago."

"Okay, okay! Jeez, you don't have to be so violent about it!" Nao held up her hands defensively while Duran adopted a forlorn look, whimpering sadly. Natsuki shook her head wearily.

"Hey, Duran, you wanna go outside?"

The mecha yipped happily and practically catapulted himself at her. Nao simply folded her arms and watched the principal walk off with Duran in her arms. Nao raised an eyebrow, glancing briefly at Mai, who was still stammering and pointing at where Natsuki once stood.

"Th-th-th-th-" she stuttered. "That is _unbelievable_!"

"I guess so," Nao shrugged. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was in love."

Unbeknownst to Nao, Natsuki heard every word.

* * *

_Damn it,_ Natsuki mentally growled. _How'd she come up with something like that? I mean, sure, I took Shizuru out on a date, but that doesn't mean I… oh, come on!_

Duran scampered around her, barking loudly in an attempt to grab her attention. No satisfying results there. Duran snuck behind Natsuki and bit at her jacket, just as he'd done several days ago. Natsuki glanced down at him, and he whimpered.

"You're such a baby," Natsuki grunted, kneeling down and petting him. Her thoughts strayed to what Nao had said. _In love…? Yeah, right._ _It's not like that._

Duran raised himself up, supporting his paws with Natsuki's knee, and proceeded to affectionately lick the wolf's face. He looked at her with an expression that said, "Where's Shizuru?"

"Shizuru's a little busy right now," Natsuki told him. "But she'll be available later on, so then you can tackle her all you want."

Duran barked and nuzzled against her shoulder.

_Speaking of Shizuru…_ Natsuki glanced up at the school, to her bedroom window. She promptly shook her head vigorously and averted her eyes to a nearby rose bush. _No way. Zhang can say what she wants, but it's not like that. I won't say it… _

She looked at Duran. He had Shizuru's eyes. _Oh, for the love of..._ Natsuki let her hand brush along his head and smiled weakly to herself.

_I won't say I'm in love. _

* * *

Sometime later, elsewhere...

Sergey and Miya had spent most of the night and into the morning searching for any sign of Don Stalkote. No such luck. Of course, the places Tomoe would most likely be hiding in (i.e. top-secret armories for Windbloom's military) were off-limits to the public, and not even the Wangster's "I'm Totally Cooler than Weekend Soldiers Now Move it" status was a good enough excuse to give them access. So then Sergey came up with the oh-so-_brilliant_ idea to ask for help from a certain irate queen.

Needless to say, Her Royal Highness wasn't exactly pleased with the sudden change of plans in her agenda. She was currently standing at full height (which isn't very tall, mind you) in the castle atrium, ready to bust some heads. Aoi and the portly Afro-San formerly known as Sakomizu could only watch helplessly as the two unfortunate souls were about to get a queen-size can of Whoop-Ass (customer satisfaction guaranteed!).

"Do you have ANY idea who you're talking to?!" Mashiro shrieked. "I've spent the past YEAR sitting by my bedroom window like an old widow waiting for any trace of my contracted Otome! I've had enough! I was going to march right over to Gaderobe to see just what in Shinso's name is going on, and now you two want me to help find some homicidal maniac hellbent on killing this so-called beast!?"

Miya raised a hand. "Begging your pardon, Highness, but Major Wang here just rambled about the whole thing at a bar last week, so I can't say it really exists."

"You're kidding, right?" Sergey turned to look at her. "I saw that beast with my own two eyes! I know it's real, so don't try to confuse me into thinking I was drunk and telling some tall tale!"

"HEY!" Mashiro hollered. "You dare ignore me when I'm talking to you?! I should have both of you rot in the dungeons!"

"Oh, come on..."

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"SHUT UP! Soldiers aren't supposed to whine like bitches, Major!"

"Sorry, Highness."

While all this was going on, Aoi happened to glance outside the window in a moment of exasperation when she spotted someone very familiar... well, the person was pretty far away from where Aoi was standing, but she could tell who it was either way. On the street just outside the castle gates was the very same homicidal maniac Sergey and Miya were searching for, only she was riding a gleaming blue Ducati motorbike with a shotgun strapped over her shoulder. Tomoe could be seen screaming obscenities at some random drivers in her path before pulling out her shotgun and waving it around threateningly.

"Uh, excuse me..." Aoi piped up. "I hate to interrupt, but I think I found what you're looking for, Major..."

Mashiro, Sergey and Miya promptly jumped three feet in the air and darted for the young maid. Aoi blinked and pointed a thumb over her shoulder just as a loud explosion shattered the air. Apparently, Tomoe had fired a warning shot just to get everyone out of her way and zoomed off for Gaderobe like a bat out of hell.

"Well, she's heading for Gaderobe, so now you have a reason to help us out, Highness," Miya remarked.

"Oh, shut up," Mashiro snapped. "Major, do you know how to drive?"

"Of course I do. Why?"

"SAKOMIZU! Get the car ready. We're going for a ride."

* * *

Shizuru smoothed out her lavender dress and looked out the window. She briefly wondered if Natsuki was in the kitchen, calming her nerves. She smiled at the mental image of a beet-red Natsuki wolfing down fried chicken drowned in mayonnaise. Either that, or the beast would take out her embarrassment on a certain sneaky little fox.

She heard an abrupt scratching on the bedroom door, closely followed by an insistent whimper. Shizuru smiled. The brunette opened the door and was almost immediately crushed to the floor as Duran threw himself at her.

"Ow," Shizuru choked out, rubbing a bruise on the back of her head. Duran sat on her stomach, nuzzling her upper chest. As cute as it was, the immense weight on Shizuru's chest was making it very difficult to breathe. "Duran, air not going into lungs..."

The mecha blinked and hopped to his feet as Shizuru took a moment to catch her breathe. Now that she had a good look at him, she realized that Duran had a rose and a note clamped in his jaws. Shizuru blinked. _A gift?_ Duran opened his mouth and Shizuru took the note in one hand, holding the rose with the other. The note was written in very rough handwriting.

_From Natsuki? ...'Shizuru, I just felt telling you that -- dear God, this'll be corny -- I'm glad that you're here. You said you were happy last night, and that's what matters... P.S. Don't you dare tell anyone about me spouting out these cheesy lines, you got that!?'_

Shizuru chuckled. _Natsuki's so sweet, even when she tries to act tough_. She gazed at the rose and brushed the petals with her thumb, smiling fondly. _I meant every word, Natsuki_.

On the nightstind beside the bed, a crimson petal slowly fell from the withering rose.

* * *

_Just a few more blocks and Oneesama is mine... Jesus, this thing's fast_. Tomoe leaned to the side for a sharp turn and nearly crashed into a van riding beside her. "Damn it, I'm too high for this shit, MOVE!" she screamed at the driver, waving her fist at him. "Do you know how frickin' expensive this crotch-rocket is?! Bloody hell, I don't even have insurance yet!"

At that moment, a gleaming white limo zoomed up behind her, expertly positioning the driver's side next to the Ducati. Tomoe stared quizzically at it from the corner of her eye as the window rolled down, revealing a mess of spiky blonde hair. Tomoe nearly fell off the bike.

"What the hell, Wang!?" she shouted.

Sergey was about to holler back when Mashiro dove for the driver's seat, poking her head out and screaming, "Pull over! License and registration, CHICKEN-SUCKER!" From inside the limo, both Aoi and Miya were clutching the pint-sized plotician's legs and wrestling her back inside while Sergey struggled to drive smoothly with Mashiro's torso obscuring his view. He grabbed the queen's white coat with one hand and began tugging her into the passenger's seat in a position that reminded himself of a monkey, and he was apparently driving like one, too.

_Oh, snap_. Tomoe swerved away as the limo violently lurched to-and-fro, various shouts and curses spewing from the open window. With Mashiro finally inside and thrashing about in her seat, Sergey just barely got a view of a 16-wheeler mack truck dangerously close to the limo's front bumper. "This might get rough!" he yelled, steering away just as he crashed into the truck, knocking the 'I Heart WB' license plate off into the street.

"Don't you know what road rage is?!" Mashiro shrieked at the truck in rage. Tomoe rolled her eyes. She leaned forward and zipped right past the limo, prompting Sergey to stomp on the gas and squeeze between the truck and a shoddy red Maverick, pounding his fist against the horn in frustration.

"I thought you said you knew how to drive!?" the Queen barked angrily. "You're wrecking my limo! You better not park us up a tree or something if we get to Gaderobe in one piece!"

"Well, it's kind of hard to keep up with a Ducati in this traffic!" Sergey retorted, zig-zagging between cars in an attempt to catch up with Tomoe. "Besides, now isn't the time for backseat-driving, Highness!"

"I'm just trying to keep my subjects alive, you ignorant knave!"

"By nagging me to death?"

"Watch the road, you idiot! THE ROAD!"

* * *

Nina wandered aimlessly through the halls, hands in her pockets, deep in thought. _I wanted to be an Otome for Otou-sama's sake... but what do I do about Ers? I don't get it..._

She was so concentrated on her thoughts that she didn't notice a certain beast leaning against the wall until she accidentally rammed into her. Natsuki promptly jerked her head around and barked gruffly.

"Oi, watch where-... oh, it's you."

"Sorry, Gakuenchou," Nina muttered, scratching her ear. "I wasn't paying attention..."

"No big deal," Natsuki shrugged. "Just be careful."

Nina tilted her head. _Weird. She seems a lot more relaxed than usual. Did I miss something? _The wolf glanced at her.

"What's with you?"

"Uh, nothing. You're just... really calm."

Natsuki grunted. "I guess."

"..."

"What, you need something?"

"Uh," Nina blinked. _Did_ she need something? She was thinking about how to handle Erstin's feelings for her, but... What the heck. "Actually, I think I need some advice."

Natsuki looked at her quizzically. "Advice? I'm not really good at that kinda thing. Shouldn't you ask Zhang or something?"

"I would, but she probably wouldn't understand... okay, maybe she will understand, but I'm afraid she might take advantage of the situation for her own benefit."

"Go figure."

"Anyways, I..." Nina uncertainly rubbed the back of her neck. _How should I say this?_ "Gakuenchou, I have this friend, and well... she kind of has these, I don't know, feelings for me, and I don't know how I should deal with it."

"Deal with it?" Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "You make it sound like something that needs to be gotten rid of."

"Okay, I'll rephrase it. I don't know how I should handle the situation."

The wolf looked at her feet. "Well, uh... does she know that you know about how she feels?"

"No, she never told me. I just sort of... found out about it. But anyway, can you give me an idea of what I should do?"

"Uh..."

"..."

Natsuki fiddled with her shirt. _Okay, Kruger, pop quiz. A student is asking you for advice about a possibly one-sided affection between friends. What do you say? Hell if I know. I'm still working on my relationship with Shizuru. But, it's not a lovey-dovey relationship, not exactly, we're just friends! At least I think we are... But what should I tell the kid? Oh God, give me strength..._

"Gakuenchou?" Nina asked, staring at the beast. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, your friend, right..."

"..."

"I guess..." Natsuki hesitated. _Shit, I'm not good at this. Okay, think. What would Shizuru do?_ "I guess, just... try to be patient and understanding with her. At least, that's how Shizuru puts up with me, I think. That's all I can say about it."

Nina stared up at the ceiling, contemplating the beast's 'advice.' Was it really that simple? She looked up at Natsuki with a small smile.

"Thank you. I think that really helped, Gakuenchou."

The wolf grunted again before turning around and heading for her room. "If you say so. Anyway, I'm outta here."

"Okay. Thanks again for the advice." Walking away with an indistinct determination, Nina undid her spiky pigtails and raked a hand through her dark hair. _Judging from Gakuenchou's attitude, things must be going well with Oneesama,_ Nina thought. _But just because they get to have a happy ending doesn't mean Erstin can't._

* * *

Natsuki opened her bedroom door and spotted Shizuru sitting on the bed with Duran relaxing on her lap, absentmindedly twirling a rose between her thumb and index finger. Natsuki flushed slightly. _Oh, so she got it already…_ Shizuru looked up to meet her gaze and smiled as the wolf flushed even harder.

"That was sweet of you," Shizuru grinned, holding the rose up. "Natsuki's turning into a real Prince Charming, isn't she, Duran?"

The mecha simply grunted and cuddled Shizuru's stomach, eliciting an amused chuckle and a pat on the head. Natsuki rolled her eyes, leaned against the wall and casually scratched her left foot using the right.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm warning you though; if you ever tell anybody about it, I will not hesitate to nuke your scrawny ass all the way to my homeland."

"Excuse me?" Shizuru looked at her incredulously. "I've been called a lot of things, but _scrawny_? You wound me, Natsuki."

"Cry me a river," Natsuki snorted. "You're so scrawny you wouldn't last ten minutes where I'm from, considering winter lasts nine months of the year back home."

"Oh, really? Is it safe to assume that most people there are armed and dangerous?"

"Where the hell did you hear that?" Natsuki barked. "Sure, we have the right to bear arms, but just because I have a bunch of guns under my bed doesn't automatically mean I'm a stereotypical trigger-happy foreigner!"

"Natsuki, it was a joke," Shizuru laughed. "I swear, you take things too seriously."

"Well, I just don't like it when some yutz decides it's a good idea to make fun of my motherland."

"I see."

"…"

"Say, Natsuki."

"Huh?"

"Does the winter there really last nine months?"

"Basically, yeah," Natsuki shrugged. "So it's always really freaking cold, especially around this time of year. Usually we'd get about four or five feet of snow, but it's nothing we can't handle." Then she more or less muttered to herself, "There're a lot of wolves back home. You can hear them howling on quiet nights, most of the time. I used to get annoyed from all the howling when I was a kid, but I kinda miss it now."

Shizuru silently rubbed her hand up and down Duran's back for a moment. During her year-long trip, she never really got to enjoy visiting the northern dominion, mainly because it was too damn cold at the time, but she would like to go back for a few days or so.

"Natsuki?"

"What?"

"When all this curse business is done and over with, would you like to go visit your home?"

Natsuki looked at the brunette strangely. "Why would you want to go _there_?"

"Because it was too cold for me to enjoy it when I was on my trip. Perhaps Natsuki could join me? I'd like the company."

"Uhhh..." Natsuki looked at the floor uncertainly. _Where'd THAT come from? I mean, I don't see why not, but..._

Duran glanced from Shizuru to Natsuki, blinked once, and crawled to the foot of the bed, whimpering in a "Can I come too?" fashion. The wolf groaned and climbed onto the bed, petting Duran's head in defeat.

"Okay, okay, the mutt can come too."

Duran barked happily and jumped at her, his tail wagging vigorously. Much to Natsuki's shock and embarrassment, Duran had seemingly calculated his master's actions, careful to make sure that his Power Glomp would result in Natsuki's head landing onto Shizuru's lap. Natsuki looked up into a pair of crimson eyes and braced herself for the inevitable teasing.

It didn't come. Instead, Shizuru smiled fondly and brushed her fingers through Natsuki's hair, lightly scratching just under her ear. The beast, completely helpless to Shizuru's touch, drooped her eyes shut and allowed the beauty to do as she pleased.

_My God,_ she thought to herself. _If I didn't know any better, I'd say she's casting a spell on me._

Shizuru leaned down so that their noses were touching and dared to plant a swift kiss on Natsuki's snout. The beast's eyes immediately snapped open in terror, registering the playful smirk gracing Shizuru's lips.

"That's a good girl," Shizuru grinned, tapping Natsuki's nose. Natsuki flailed her arms, flipped onto her stomach (prompting Duran to hop off of her) and struggled to sit up, but was thwarted as Shizuru curled over her, resting both arms over the wolf's back.

"Shizuru, get off," Natsuki growled, her voice muffled by the woman's abdomen.

"Nope," was the cheeky reply.

"Get. Off."

"Not until Natsuki says please."

"Oh, motherf—! Shizuru, I'm not playing around, now get off!"

"You forgot to say the magic word."

"Damn it, Shizuru, PLEASE get off!"

The brunette complied, sitting up straight and exchanging evil grins with Duran. Natsuki quickly pushed herself up, flustering uncontrollably as her snout accidentally brushed against Shizuru's ample bosom. Natsuki was about to swear up a storm when Duran jerked around, facing the window and letting a low growl escape from his throat. Natsuki blinked and took a brief sniff at the air.

"…Does anybody else smell burning rubber?"

No sooner had the question left her mouth when a loud crash reached her ears. Natsuki jumped off the bed and stared out the window. She could see that a fancy white limo had drove into the school's barred gates, forcing them open and leaving quite a nasty dent in the front bumpers. Just a few feet away from the limo was a blue motorcycle.

This won't end well.

* * *

Kicking the driver's seat open, Sergey leapt out of the limo and darted after Tomoe, who had parked the Ducati and was now running at the school doors. Aoi and Miya bolted after him, while Mashiro took the time to shriek in horror at the damage done to her precious car before racing after the others. Tomoe took the shotgun in her hands and charged headfirst into the doors, effectively bursting inside, rolled into a kneeling position and took aim.

"Alright you primitive screwheads, LISTEN UP!" she roared. "See this? This... is my BOOMSTICK! And if any of you primates so much as TOUCHES me, I'll pump your guts full of lead! YA GOT THAT!?"

Unfortunately, the only primitive screwhead(s) Tomoe was pointing her boomstick at was not a large wolf/beast hybrid, but a small group of animals consisting of a panther, a fox, and a kangaroo. Needless to say, the poor kangaroo was completely freaked out.

"N-Nao-oneesama...?"

"Now hold on..." Chie started, staring at Tomoe with a strange look.

"Holy shit, they can talk!" Tomoe cried in surprise.

"No duh," snapped a clearly offended Nao. "What'd you expect me to do? Hold a bone in my mouth and dribble all over it?"

Tomoe slowly lowered her shotgun and squinted at the fox. "Wait a sec... are you Juliet Nao Zhang?"

"Oh, so you know who I am. I'm SO FLATTERED!" Nao shouted the last part in irritation, baring her fangs at the green-haired lunatic.

"For goodness' sake, chill out!" Chie barked, yanking Nao's tail and ignoring her yelp of pain. "And as for you... Asymmetrical green hair, psychotic gleam in her eyes, looks like she hasn't had a decent sleep in years... Tomoe Marguerita, is that really you?"

Tomoe's jaw dropped. "No way. Chie Hallard??"

"In the furry flesh. Did you get expelled over a year ago for God-only-knows how many attempted murders? Why the hell are you back here waving a shotgun around like a Nazi?"

"...Why the hell are you dressed like a panther?"

Chie growled.

"Well, it's not like she has a choice," Arika pointed out. "And neither do we, for that matter."

"Arika Yumemiya?" Tomoe blinked. "You've got to be kidding me. You _still_ haven't dropped out yet?"

"HEY!"

"Marguerita, get your jailbait ass over here!" Sergey hollered from outside the doors.

"Major, hey!" Nao waved. "Welcome back! Did you miss Julia or something?"

"Oh dear Lord, not you again..."

"You keep out of this, Wang!" Tomoe yelled, suddenly remembering why she was here in the first place. "You can go indulge in your underage magical girl complexes for all I care, but the beast is mine!"

And with that, the psycho was off. Sergey groaned in frustration as Aoi, Miya and Mashiro stepped inside. Upon catching sight of the furry caravan before them, all three girls froze dead in their tracks.

"…Chie??" Aoi gasped.

"Um," Arika looked up at the panther. "How're we supposed to explain this?"

Chie didn't answer. She was far too busy staring right back at Aoi in a moment of apprehension. Arika glanced at a dumbstruck Mashiro, who looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. The kangaroo managed a nervous grin.

"Uh… hi?"

Mashiro fainted on the spot.

* * *

Nastuki was bounding down the hall on all fours with Shizuru and Duran right behind her when something jumped at her, screaming like all hell was about to break loose.

"MARGUERITA-STYLE, SLEEPING CROCODILE, HIDDEN DEMON!!"

"What the hell?!"

Natsuki skidded to a halt, just barely missing the shotgun being swung at her head, inadvertently causing Shizuru and Duran to run right into her. From under a lopsided mane of green hair, a pair of wide eyes twitched at the wolf before her, but brightened immediately at the sight of Shizuru. The brunette on the other hand looked at her quite strangely.

"Tomoe... what are you doing here?"

"Oneesama! I came to save you!"

"What in fuck's name?" Natsuki barked.

Tomoe aimed at Natsuki's head and gave her a look of pure venom. "YOU! You have ten seconds to let her go before I blow your head off, you hideous beast!"

Natsuki blinked.

"Tomoe, please," Shizuru reached over to point the gun in a different direction. "That's no way to behave."

"But..." Tomoe didn't understand. How could Shizuru be so calm in the presence of such a monstrous creature? It didn't make any sense to her.

Shizuru stepped in front of Natsuki as Duran peeked at the stalker from behind her. Natsuki straightened herself up and her brow furrowed at the shotgun pointing at her head again. Shizuru gave Tomoe a disapproving look.

"Tomoe, please stop it."

"But-!"

"I will not allow you to be so violent toward Natsuki."

"Natsuki?" Tomoe blinked. She looked at the beast in shock. "Don't tell me that _thing_ is Natsuki Kruger?!"

Natsuki scowled. She remembered expelling this brat well over a year ago, back when she was still a (more or less) normal, human Otome. She never really liked Tomoe; the girl always rubbed her the wrong way. But after being relieved of putting up with the pint-sized psycho for a while, she was really starting to piss her off all over again. Duran growled at Tomoe from behind his master.

Apparently, Shizuru wasn't too pleased with Tomoe's behavior either. She frowned, her crimson eyes narrowing.

"Stop that nonsense," she said coldly. "Natsuki is not some wild animal. She's been good to me, and I won't let you hurt her."

Natsuki looked at her friend in surprise. She had never seen Shizuru angry, and she briefly wondered just what would happen if Tomoe irritated her any further. Actually, she had to admit, this side of Shizuru was kind of attractive... well, not that the wasn't attractive in the first place, but... you get the idea.

Tomoe, who had been carefully watching Natsuki from the corner of her eye, did _not_ like the way she was looking at the elegant brunette. "Hey, who do you think you are, Fido?! I see the way you're looking at Oneesama, like a bloodthirsty wolf on the hunt—"

"W-wh-what, excuse me?" Natsuki stuttered bewilderedly. "I must be going deaf. Did you just call me _Fido_?"

"Did I SAY you could talk, you overgrown furball? I don't think so!"

"Pretty tough words for a little brat!"

"Listen you slobbery, mangy, fleabitten monster! I don't know what you've done to Oneesama, but once you're dead and stuffed, she can freely—"

Shizuru had enough. She took a few steps toward the enraged stalker, who naturally assumed that Shizuru was going to choose her, and looked up at the brunette with adoring eyes, but...

_SMACK!_

Tomoe recoiled violently, her free hand clapping over the burning red mark from Shizuru's palm. She looked up at the beauty in confusion, her eyes watering a bit.

"Oneesama, why did you...?"

"Because I'm happy here with Natsuki."

"What?"

"I told you; Natsuki's been good to me. I don't care if she is a beast. I'm staying here, so go home, Tomoe."

"But..."

Shizuru gave her a look. And not just any look, but the Look. The kind of look in one's eyes that quite plainly said, "One more word out of you and I really _will_ snap." Tomoe didn't like that look at all. The cold, angry scrutiny was almost leaving her in tears.

"Now go home, Tomoe," Shizuru repeated, turning on her heel and walking away. Natsuki and Duran were completely dumbstruck, glancing from Shizuru to Tomoe and back to Shizuru again. Shizuru, who had recovered from her uncharacteristic ire, looked at the two affectionately. The beast blinked and quietly followed her, Duran trotting right behind them.

Tomoe stayed rooted to the spot, gazing longingly at the retreating brunette. As a sharp, stabbing ache coursed through her veins, she slowly put two and two together.

Oneesama defended the beast. Oneesama is happy with the beast. _Oneesama loves the beast._

She moved. Tomoe made her way to a more secluded part of Gaderobe, where she knew no one would bother her. With the knowledge of her one and only's heart taken by a hideous beast, and the shotgun in her hand, Tomoe felt the icy breath of despair on her neck. It was time to clean up.

...Funeral march, anyone?

* * *

With Arika and Sergey tending to the unconscious ruler, Chie nervously turned to Aoi.

"Uh, Aoi...?"

"What is it?"

"I uh... I'm sorry we couldn't have met under better circumstances. We ended up like this about a year ago and..."

"It's all right."

"Wha?"

Aoi looked at the panther gently. "I said it's all right. It doesn't matter to me if you've been cursed or something. Just as long as I know you're okay, then I'm happy." Raising a hand to brush Chie's soft black fur, she jokingly added, "If I had known you'd wind up as such a big kitty, I'd consider keeping you as a pet, Chie-chan."

"Oh, I'd have no complaints about that," Chie purred, nuzzling into Aoi's touch. "But what do we do about Her Royal High-Horse-ness?"

The maid glanced at Mashiro's still KOed form. "Well... I suppose she'll have to get used to having a kangaroo around the castle."

"So love really does conquer over all weird BS," Nao snarked. "Yeah, all that happy stuff makes me feel like _totally barfing_! Go and have your bestial sex somewhere else so we won't have to deal with any traumatized pre-teens."

"Oh, shut up and go worship the Kruger shrine in your closet, Juliet, I know you still have it!" Chie snapped.

Nao glared and muttered several obscenities under her breath.

"Hey, I think she's coming around!" Sergey shouted, watching the queen stir.

At that moment, a rather loud gunshot echoed through the walls, shaking dust off from the ceiling. Mashiro jumped, fully conscious and having a panic attack.

"What, who, where, when, why, how!?"

"I have a bad feeling..." Arika murmured to herself.

* * *

It was very dark. And dear _Jesus_, did it hurt. Mostly in the back of her head. And she did acknowledge the faint, bitter taste of metal in her mouth. Wait, what the hell happened?

...Oh. Right. Onnesama rejected her, and in a fit of despair/angst/etc, she put the shotgun in her mouth and shot herself. Nice going, emo kid. Welcome to hell, mind the stove.

Tomoe curled herself into a ball, clamping both hands over her ears in a vain attempt to block out the cocophany of screaming demonic voices in her head, ordering her to slaughter everyone in the school, and then herself along with Shizuru. She felt something sharp jab her in the back.

"Ow! What the-?"

She jerked into a fetal position and looked upwards; standing in the darkness before her was a very familiar looking viridian-eyed woman with demon horns poking out of her long, flowing purple hair. A massive crystal spear was held rather tightly in her hand, and Tomoe briefly wondered if she was going to get skewered.

"Yo!" the entity greeted good-naturedly.

"Mashiro Blan de Windbloom?" Tomoe blinked uncertainly.

"Technically no... but close enough."

"Okaaaay... so just who the hell are you?"

The spear-wielding Mashiro look-a-like looked thoughtful for a quick moment.

"Ehhh, I guess you could say I'm... an omnipresent being from the gap between dimensions, kinda like a spirit. Ghost, illusion, figment of your overactive imagination, the crazy voice inside your thick little head that tells you what to do, whichever you like works fine with me. Although, I'm actually quite fond of Seeker. It makes me feel cool when I'm guiding lost souls."

Tomoe raised an eyebrow. "For an omnipresent being from the gap between dimensions, you don't sound very menacing."

"The sound of my true voice would cause your insides to digest themselves."

...Makes sense.

"Um, 'kay. Seeker, huh... am I looking for something or what?"

"Uh-huh."

"Alrighty, so uh... what am I looking for again?"

"You need to figure that out for yourself."

Tomoe scowled. "Well, that's all nice and frickin' cryptic. Any clues?"

"Sure. The object of your 'Good-God-Get-Some-Fucking-Therapy-You-Stupid-Emo-Kid' obsession, Shizuru Viola, harbors a certain affection for the beast you so despise."

Something clicked in Tomoe's brain. Her grayish eyes flared in hatred. "Kruger! How the HELL can a monster like her charm Shizuru?!"

"Because Natsuki can do something that you can't hope to accomplish-- she can make Shizuru happy."

"Damn her!" Tomoe seethed. "And all I have are these feelings of obsession and hate..."

"Ah, young Padawan, that is the beginning of your own curse," the omnipresent wishmaster murmured sagely.

"My curse? You mean like Kruger's? So if I can try to make Shizuru fall for me, I can take Kruger out and Shizuru'll be all mine?"

"Maybe. I can curse you, and let you feed off your own hatred, if you like."

"I dunno, that sounds kinda psychotic..."

"Hey, it's better than spending the rest of your eternal punishment vomiting slugs every time you open your mouth. Besides, you're the one with the schitzophrenic voices screaming in your puny mind. And they really sound pissed off... you might want to give them a little peace of mind."

"Will it stop them from giving me splitting headaches?"

"Of course."

"Then what're you waiting for? Tell me what to do!"

"It's simple. Now listen closely. Remember to breathe, and step forward through the back door of the room, y'know, the big ominous kinda door that says _Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate_. Uh, the one in your mind, I mean. This isn't much of a room, I guess."

Ignoring that last comment, Tomoe closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

"Where does it lead?" she asked.

"To your cave," the diety replied. "Step forward into your cave... that's right. You're going deeper into your cave. And you're going to find... your power animal."

The stalker kept her eyes shut for a moment. Then she adopted a quizzical WTF? look.

"Dude, my power animal looks like the forbidden love child of a wookie and a chimera."

"Well, at least it suits you."


	10. Chapter IX

**

* * *

Chapter 9: Before the Last Petal Falls**

"Hey, Shizuru."

"Yes?"

Natsuki scratched her ear uncertainly. "I've never seen you like that before. You're always so calm, I didn't think it was possible for you to lose your cool."

"Oh, that?" Shizuru laughed. "Well, it's not impossible. You just have to know which buttons to press."

"And I take it that the brat's moaning and groaning really set you off?"

"Actually, she just wouldn't stop insulting you. It was a little annoying at first, but I didn't want to hear any more of it."

Natsuki shrugged. "Now you know what I had to put up with."

"Precisely. And besides..." Shizuru stopped and turned to face the beast. "She had the completely wrong impression on what Natsuki is really like."

"What, so I'm _not_ a slobbery, mangy, flea-bitten monster?" Natsuki asked half-jokingly.

"Not at all. On the contrary, Natsuki is warm, soft, and adorable to boot. Finally, a beast who can rip a man's arms off and remain cuddly."

"For the hundredth-millionth time, I'm no—"

"I know, I know, 'not cute.' However, I must disagree with you on that."

Shizuru raised a hand to gently caress the blue-black fur. "Natsuki always acts tough, but she also has a kind and gentle side. As I said to Tomoe, I don't care if Natsuki is a beast. I'm happy as long as you're here with me."

Natsuki gulped nervously. _Is this really happening? She sounds so sincere…_ As a strangely warm feeling blossomed into her chest, she couldn't help but lean in a little closer, her heart pounding when Shizuru did the same. The distance between them had closed considerably when Duran suddenly jerked around, whining apprehensively. Natsuki's ears twitched and she gripped Shizuru's shoulder.

"What is it?" the brunette blinked.

"You hear that?" Natsuki muttered. "It sounded like a gunshot…"

* * *

Nao had raced through the halls as a scout, while Chie and Arika stayed behind to look after the human entourage. There was a distinct smell in this particular hall, a scent of sulfur and burning brimstone that positively reeked to high heaven. With a paw over her snout to block out the smell, Nao kicked at the nearest door. Grabbing the handle, she flung it open, and some brooms tumbled out.

_Just what the hell's going on?_ The fox asked herself while walking to the next door. The smell was even worse over here, to the point where Nao's eyes began to water. She gripped the handle, held her breath and yanked as hard as she could. Blinking several times, Nao had a feeling she would regret seeing this for a long time.

"Aw, _fuck_, man. _Fuck_."

* * *

Upon reaching the main hall, Natsuki was quite confused to see a very disturbed Nao dart over to Chie, who was currently having a light cuddle session with some human maid. The wolf's jaw dropped at the sight of Sergey, Mashiro and Miya. Duran growled mischievously at the Major.

"What is this, a freakin' house party?!"

"Oh hey, Gakuenchou," Chie waved.

"Hallard, explain to me WHY the hell this useless piece of testosterone is here _again_?"

"We came to get Marguerita," Sergey piped up with a nervous grin. "Have you seen her anywhere, Fido?"

"Why's everybody been calling me Fido lately?!"

"We saw her a few minutes ago," Shizuru quipped.

"Oneesama, you look like you've seen a ghost," Arika looked over at the fox worriedly. "Is something the matter? What did you see?"

"A ghost?" Nao gave out a hollow laugh. "I wish. What's the most hideous thing you can possibly think of?"

Everyone looked at each other.

"Nosferatu?"

"Typhoid?"

"The Major in his birthday suit?"

"Hey!"

"Well, it is!"

"Bad mental image!" Natsuki barked in horror, clapping both paws over her ears. "I did NOT need to hear that!"

"You're all lucky you didn't have to _see_ it," Miya shuddered. "That thing was downright fugly."

"I'm not listening! Lalalala!"

"Well, at least it's better than being an overgrown pooch that desperately needs some anger management!" Sergey snapped.

"I'm warning you, Squally. If my eyes don't bleed profusely and melt out of my skull, I will kick you in the nuts so hard they'll scream horribly and die."

"Okay, we're getting off-topic here," Nao declared. "If you all want to keep your sanity, I suggest _not_ looking for that monstrosity. The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

"Yeah, sure, and there're ninjas on the fuckin' lawn trying to kill us," Natsuki snapped. "What, did Lucifer rear his ugly head and decide to move in?"

"It was more like the result of one really gross cross-breeding orgy."

"And where exactly did you see this supposed Thing That Should Not Be?" Chie shrugged.

"Over in the east wing. If you start to smell something kind of like sulfur, you might want to haul ass outta there."

"Are you saying that to all of us?" Sergey asked, glancing around the room. "Like you're implying that we, as in the whole party, are going to look for it? Because if this thing really is ugly enough to make all who gaze upon it go _muy loco_, then count me out. Make poochie do it."

"Are you serious?" the wolf gaped. "Why the worldly hell should I sacrifice my sanity to look for something that's probably not even there?"

"Natsuki has a point," Shizuru added. "We could always look for Tomoe."

"Oh, poochie-Gakuenchou'll find Tomoe all right," Nao shuddered. "The brat's gone ahead and... I don't want to say, it's too gross. The stench of gun smoke, and drying blood... and sulfur. My God, the sulfur!"

Natsuki grinded her teeth angrily. Shizuru could just barely hear the beast muttering vulgarities under her breath. Something like, "_Screw me sideways, shit a goddamn, ain't that just fucking peachy._" All traces of patience lost, Natsuki stomped over to Sergey. The blonde gave her a scared grin, to which she responded with a hard kick right in his groin.

"Aw, fu-!" Sergey collapsed into a fetal position, his face beet red and both arms folding against his lower stomach. He looked up at the infuriated wolf and demanded in a cracked, squeaky voice, "What the hell was that for?!"

"That was for calling me poochie too many times, asshead!"

And with that, the Kruger was off. Sergey let out a few pained whines and looked up at Shizuru, who was silently watching Natsuki's departure.

"Frankly, I don't know what you see in that disfigured mutation of an anthropomorphic wolf, Viola-san."

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. _The only disfigured mutation I see is that haircut._

* * *

Stomping down the east wing, Natsuki caught a rather strange scent. A very strong smell, like sulfur. Natsuki's nose twitched, and she made her way to one particular door that was left open a little. _All righty. I assume this is where Zhang supposedly came across a horrific demon from a realm beyond the comprehensible prowess of us insignificant ticks on the epidermise of the roiling chaos itself? Oh, I'm just DYING to meet it, I'm sure._

She yanked the door open and froze. Shock and disgust would be serious understatements, 'cause _JESUS JACKRABBIT CHRIST, WHAT THE SHIT IS THAT._

Natsuki stared at the abomination before her. She wanted desperately to look away, but she just couldn't stop staring; it was like walking past a train wreck.

The thing (she wasn't sure what it was) had a massive, bear-like body covered in shaggy green hair, and stood around eight or nine feet tall on bulky hooves, with big gorilla arms hanging down from broad shoulders. A long, thick tail slowly swayed on the floor like a crocodile's. Its face looked like a cross between a deformed horse and a sloth, with huge tusks poking out from its head.

Clearly, the thing appeared to be the result of a cow, a bear, a sloth and a horse having the most disgusting orgy in the history of the universe, complete with wookie hair dyed puke-green.

"…You're one ugly motherfucker," Natsuki grunted after a moment of silence.

"Right back at you, Kruger," the crime against nature on nuclear steroids retorted in a high-pitched voice.

"Hold it, hold it, hold it! Do I know you? And why do you sound like Mike Tyson?"

"Is _that_ what I sound like? I thought I sounded like a toad after a helium accident. Kind of like you, except for the high pitch."

"A toad?! Why you ugly little-!"

"Just shut up and give me a minute, would you?!"

The thing proceeded to hack out a series of loud, whooping coughs and its throat swelled at a disturbing level, making a low croaking noise. Natsuki snickered.

"A toad, Madame? Perhaps it is you who are the toad," she quoted smugly.

"That's ENOUGH! I don't care what you say about me, Kruger! I'm taking you down and Oneesama will be mine!"

Silence.

"Okay, let me wrap my mind around this," Natsuki muttered. "The gigantic thing before me that clearly looks like the forbidden offspring of Cthulhu, is Tomoe Marguerite? Are you freaking kidding me?"

"Since when do I look like Cthulhu? You don't hear me spouting out '_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn'_, do you?"

"You just did, dumbass!"

"Shut up! That still doesn't mean I'm the spawn of the Great Old One!"

"Maybe you're right about that. I think Cthulhu is supposed to look like a pulpy, tentacled head surmounted on a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings. And personally, I'd rather you didn't have an octopus head, 'cause that'd be a little too much for my already damaged psyche to handle."

Tomoe scowled. "Was that supposed to be a joke? Because I'm not laughing!"

"Neither am I, apparently!" Natsuki shot back. "I am so disgusted by your immensly hideous appearance, it's amazing I haven't gone insane by now. One look at you and I bet Shizuru would have a hell of a time staying conscious."

"You do realize that with every insult you throw at me, you are one step closer to signing your own death warrant, right?"

"Ooh, I'm so scared! Seriously, though. Can you even back up your bark with some bite?"

"I should say the same to you, Miss Big Bad Lupine Principal!"

"Oh, come on! Shut your deformed maw and hit me with a real one, damn it!"

Tomoe complied, lunging forward and swinging her massive arm at the wolf. Before Natsuki had time to react, she found herself crashing into the wall with enough force to leave a Kruger-shaped crater. Tomoe folded her arms in smug satisfaction.

"How do you like that?" she rumbled.

Natsuki simply peeled herself off the wall and staggered about.

"Dude, I'm seeing stars..."

"Now this is just disappointing," Tomoe remarked, cracking her knuckles. "I expected the infamous Kruger to do more than spout out trash talk, and you're already down from one little swipe? What a complete let-down."

Natsuki snapped out of her daze, the three hideous whatever-the-hell-they-are things merging into one once her vision cleared. The beast hunched down on all fours, ears stiff, lips curling up and showing off her fangs, a low bass-like snarl escaping her throat.

"Watch your mouth, pallie. I'm about to lose my temper. Now do me one really big favor and _shut_, the fuck, _UP_!"

Tomoe ignored that last bark and fiddled with her large horns. "Seriously, I don't know what Oneesama sees in you. You're rude, brash, violent, and you have bad taste in decorating. Do you even understand the very concept of 'pleasing' her? I bet she'd rather sleep with a camel spider."

Natsuki's patience snapped for what was possibly the millionth time that week. She charged at the green monstrosity and repeatedly slammed her fist into its face, spouting out obscenities such as, "Oh, fuck off! Dumb, fucking bastard! Fuck you!"

* * *

Nina stared at the door hesitantly. She knew that Erstin would be inside, reading a book or something. Biting down on her lip, she grabbed the knob with a shaky hand and pulled it open as calmly as possible. Lo and behold, Erstin was sitting cross-legged on her bed, a large somewhat old book lying on her lap, viridian eyes completely focused on its text.

_Uh._ Nina ran through her options. Either just stand there and wait for Erstin to notice she'd come in, or say something. She went with the former.

Watching Erstin read was surprisingly interesting. Every once in a while, the cat would swipe her tail across the comforter or scratch her ear whenever she turned a page. Once or twice her tail would rise up and then flop back onto the mattress. Her eyes stared at the pages quite intensely, almost as if she was trying to distract herself from something else. Nina felt a slight flush on her cheeks; she felt weird just watching her friend like this. The lab shifted her weight a little, and the floorboards let out a dull creak. She flinched when she saw Erstin's cat ears perk up.

The cat looked up and made a surprised little squeak. Nina blinked. Erstin smiled a bit and tilted her head.

"Nina-chan, I didn't hear you come in. I was... really into the book."

"What're you reading?" Nina asked impulsively. Erstin simply flushed a bit and slipped a bookmark into the novel, closing it without a word. On the decrepit cover, Nina could see the crimson-painted title plain as day. "Bram Stoker's Dracula?"

"I saw it on the bookshelf and I got curious, so..."

"It's okay, that's actually one of my favorites."

Nina could've sworn she saw a brief sparkle in Erstin's eyes. Feeling bold, she walked over and sat down on the bed. She turned to her roommate and made an effort to look at her eyes.

"How far did you get?"

"About halfway through."

"It gets pretty good around there."

Erstin didn't respond that time. She turned to look out the window, her thumb absentmindedly rubbing against the cover. Nina mentally punched herself. _Damn it, now I've gone and made her uncomfortable. What now?_ She decided to see what Erstin found so interesting and followed the cat's gaze.

"Looks like rain," she muttered. Erstin made a strange noise, almost like choking back a giggle. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, you're just pretty talkative today," Erstin shrugged, looking back at her friend. "Is something the matter?"

"Uh..." Nina bit her lip and looked up into Erstin's viridian orbs. _She's got such a lonely look in her eyes. Just let it out, will you?_ "Ers, I think this is going to come out weird, but... you're not feeling sad, are you?"

"Huh? Why would I be sad?"

"I-I don't know, I just..."

Well crap, now she was getting nervous. And when Nina got nervous, she got frustrated. And when Nina got frustrated, she got angry. Talking to her friend about her feelings was completely different from getting ready to smash a blunt object into someone's face if they didn't explain what Marcellus Wallace looked like, or something. Nina could handle angrily socking someone (namely Arika) in their face just fine, but she just wasn't good with these kinds of emotions, for God's sake.

"Look, I just— you looked kinda sad a moment ago, okay? I don't know why I feel this way, but whenever you look sad or whatever, I feel like something's being ripped out of my chest, and I can't stand it. If something's bothering you, just come talk to me about it."

"Nina-chan, I..."

Erstin stared at the floor uncertainly. _Does that mean she knows that I...?_

"Ers?"

"Does that mean you know how I feel about you, Nina-chan?"

Nina's heart skipped a beat. The cat looked at her with a gravely serious expression on her face. Nina felt an unpleasant sensation in her stomach, as if her heart was starting to sink like a rock. _It's past the point of no return. What if I end up losing my friend?_

"I... yeah."

"I didn't want you to know."

"Huh?"

"I didn't want you to know about my feelings," Erstin repeated, a little more firmly. "I kept it a secret because of how you feel about your father. I didn't want you to think I was a freak or something."

"Ers, we're part of an entire academy of magical girls who got turned into furries. We're all freaks."

Nina's well-meaning attempt at lightening the atmosphere seemingly overshot its target. Erstin's crestfallen eyes watered up a bit and she gripped her arm. The lab panicked and grabbed her friend's shoulders.

"Oh no, c'mon Ers, please don't cry! Whatever I did, I'm sorry."

Erstin looked up and stared into Nina's burgundy eyes, seeing the lab's genuine, almost desperate concern for her friend. She blushed a little. There was something else in those eyes, a gentle feeling akin to affection. Erstin had just opened her mouth to speak when a loud crash vibrated through the walls, closely followed by another one that collided into the wall right beside them with more than enough force to push the bed a few feet away. Erstin collapsed into Nina's arms in shock, while Nina numbly gripped the cat's shoulders.

_Okaaay. Not that I'm complaining about this, but what the hell just happened here?_

* * *

Natsuki crashed through the door. Somehow, she and Tomoe had moved their brawl to someone's room, and Natsuki quite frankly didn't care how she ended up being thrown into the closet like a jumbo-sized rag doll. Right now, she just wanted to know what the _hell_ was digging into her back like that, so she reached behind her and snagged the object, bringing it in front of her face. It was a silver hairpin shaped like an 'S'. Natsuki looked at the hairpin with an almost childish surprise and slipped it into her coat pocket.

"Hey, I was wondering where this thing wen-... huh?"

Of course, she just now noticed the closet's interior. Photographs of herself were nailed to the walls with red hearts (were they made of _lipstick_?) encircling her head, and a few locks of her hair had been taped to a particularly large photo. There was even a newspaper clipping discussing whether or not she was a communist spy, the headline reading, "Natsuki H. Kruger: O Commie, Where Art Thou?" Damn tabloids, always bothering to add her oh-so significant middle name that nobody even pronounced right... Then, there was something that quite positively scared the crap out of her. A haphazardly drawn picture of Natsuki holding hands with a redhead, little hearts surrounding their heads.

In her moment of terror, Natsuki ripped it off the wall and crumbled the picture into a ball, muttering to herself that she'd kill a certain fox for this. Just then, Tomoe stomped into the room and gaped at the Kruger shrine hidden in the closet.

"Jesus, Kruger, you're a real stalker magnet."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

* * *

"Just out of curiosity, Zhang, what did that supposed monster look like, anyway?" Sergey asked.

"For the last time, Major, I'm not reliving that incident," Nao snapped. "I still want those five minutes of my life back just for looking at that thing."

"So that's a no?"

"Are these people deliberately ignoring me?" Mashiro huffed. "They could at least ask me if I'm still sane."

"You just passed out after looking at me," Arika replied. "I can't really blame you for that."

"Arika, the last time I passed out, I saw you trying to do a German suplex on some random passerby while wearing that hideous uniform. I can't say I had a very nice view from where I was standing at the time."

"You're so mean!" Arika pouted in an attempt to get the older people to sympathize with her. "Major, tell Mashiro-chan to stop being such a bully!"

"Cut it out, kiddo, you're not cute at all," Sergey declared, unfazed by the kangaroo's pout. "Besides, she's not bullying you, that's just her way of saying she likes you. All the kids do that these days."

_Am I insane, or did Wang-san say something that actually makes sense?_ Miya thought to herself.

Arika gaped at the midget queen. "Mashiro-chan, is he serious? That's why you always pick on me?"

"No! You just annoy me!" Mashiro barked, her face resembling a tomato. "You're too bouncy, hyper, and loud for your own good! Someone has to keep you in line!"

"...I think someone deserves a hug!"

"So, Zhang," Mashiro turned to the fox while vehemently fending off a starry-eyed kangaroo. "I'm curious, what DID that thing look like?

Nao threw her arms up in defeat. "Look, just try thinking of a hideous abomination, like something from the Cthulhu Mythos or whatever."

"You mean like Yog-Sothoth?" Sergey asked.

"Dude, Yog-Sothoth is a conglomeration of bubbles. Why don't you go with something more, I don't know, _physical_?"

"Because the only creatures I know from the Mythos are Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth, that's why!"

Shizuru watched the discussion take a more heated turn, as Nao and Sergey soon began to argue about Yidhra and Nyarlathotep and which one of the two would win in a fight. Nao coolly stated that even though Nyarlathotep was indeed an Outer God, he was still depicted as a man and like any stereotypical man he would most likely blow his brains out if he saw Yidhra in her true form. Sergey just retorted that Yidhra would either way use her abilities to cheat her way out. Although a rather morbid part of the brunette would've liked to stay and let this debate drag on, Shizuru decided to go see how Natsuki was doing. Besides, she couldn't ignore that bad feeling in her stomach for very long.

* * *

Some time after moving out of Nao's room, Natsuki found her skull being slammed (once, twice, thrice) into the wall, an uncomfortably gigantic hand squeezing the air out of her throat, her claws pawing frantically at Tomoe's oversized wrist. Blood was starting trickle down a gash in her head, staining the blue-black hair.

"You - don't know _shit_ - about _fuck_!" Tomoe swore loudly, pausing at every other word during her attempts to bash the wolf's face in.

"Keep it up and I'll snap your spinal chord in half once I get loose!" Natsuki hoarsely snapped.

"You're bluffing!"

"I've played poker with Shizuru, I can't bluff for shit!"

Tomoe's eye twitched. "Kruger, it better not have been strip poker, or so help me God—"

"What'll you do if it was? Break my puny little neck?"

"Good idea!"

As both of Tomoe's hands painfully tightened around her neck, Natsuki inwardly damned her spastic tongue for the fact that she was currently being strangled to death by the ugliest thing she'd ever had the midfortune of laying her eyes on. It didn't really help that the monstrosity's claws were digging into her neck, making it nigh impossible to breathe, let alone snap out of the sudden tight feeling in her head. Just as Natsuki was on the verge of passing out, something purple zipped out of nowhere and violently threw Tomoe aside, a pair of slender, but strong arms catching the dark-haired beast. A very lightheaded Natsuki gasped and choked for air as she was eased to the floor. Attracted by the sudden warmth around her, she leaned into the source.

_Ah... this is nice. Sleepy time is nice._

"Natsuki? Natsuki!"

_...Whuzzat?_

She slowly cracked her eyes open, registering a weird purple mass in her view. Whatever it was, it was incredibly soft... and kind of felt like leather. Natsuki blankly looked up into a pair of worried crimson eyes veiled by chestnut hair. It was at that point that Natsuki realized she had buried her face into Shizuru's breasts.

_...Shit!_

"Are you all right?" Shizuru asked.

"Shizuru, I just got the living hell kicked out of my furry tuchas by a Cthulhu wannabe. DO I LOOK ALL RIGHT?!"

"Considering that dreamy expression you had, I should think so."

Natsuki slapped her forehead. "Just shut your trap and help me up!"

Shizuru smiled and stood up, offering a hand to the beast. Before she could take it, Natsuki glanced at the brunette's attire. For some odd reason, Shizuru had materialized into her battle robe. The skin-tight black and purple leather greatly accentuated every seductive curve of her body, and Natsuki couldn't help but stare. Shizuru smirked.

"And here I was thinking Natsuki was the first person in six months to not immediately picture me naked," she joked.

"Sorry!" Natsuki squeaked, using every ounce of willpower to avert her eyes.

"Are you done?" Shizuru asked playfully.

Natsuki paused, staring at a particular spot on the wall where Tomoe was slamming her head against just a little while ago. Then she looked back at Shizuru and said, "I'm done."

Shizuru's grin widened.

"...Now I'm done."

Still grinning.

"Okay, _now_ I'm done."

Damn woman and that grin of hers.

"Okay, now."

Fortunately for Natsuki's self esteem, Tomoe staggered back into view with one paw covering her left eye. She gazed at Shizuru incredulously, her good eye nearly popping out of its socket. Shizuru glanced behind her and took one good look at the thing before turning back to Natsuki, mouthing a disgusted 'Gross'. Natsuki nodded in agreement. Tomoe didn't like being ignored, so she let out a loud whine.

"Oneesama, what'd you do that for?!"

Shizuru was about to reply when her eyebrows suddenly furrowed and she let out a mild sneeze. Natsuki looked at her strangely.

"What's up with you?"

"I'm allergic to sulfur," the brunette replied, reaching for a conveniently-placed tissue box.

"Wha— I do NOT smell like sulfur!" Tomoe growled irately. Shizuru just sneezed again. Tomoe then brought a hand to her face and exhaled into her paw. _...Damn it all._

"Well, I was worried about Natsuki. I decided to see what she was doing, and here I find poor Natsuki being strangled to death. I had to save her." Shizuru looked as if she were resisting the urge to add a smart-alecky "duh!" to her reply. She looked back at Natsuki and remarked, "I take it this is the horrible demon that Zhang-san was talking about?"

"Bingo."

"And judging from the green hair, I can only assume this is Tomoe we're dealing with."

"Bingo."

"What bothers me is how she ended up like that, and frankly, I don't think I want to know."

"Wise choice."

"But, but I nearly got my eye stabbed out!" Tomoe yowled, removing her hand to reveal what appeared to be a rather disgustingly performed lobotomy. Her left eye was half closed with blood gushing out from her violently twitching eyelid. Natsuki winced and Shizuru covered her mouth.

"Ah... whoops."

"That does NOT look pleasant..."

"SHUT UP, KRUGER! This is all your fault, you worthless pooch! I'm going to go Akakabuto on your ass so hard not even your fleas will recognize you!"

Natsuki rolled her eyes. "First of all, that's getting real old, real quick. Number two, why the hell does everybody keep calling me poochie? What do I look like, Lassie? Gin? Fenrisulfr? Secondly-- or thirdly, for those keeping track-- I do NOT have fleas! Just ask Shizuru here, she sleeps with me all the time!"

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Tomoe screeched.

Natsuki clamped her muzzle shut. _Note to self: think before you freaking speak._

Shizuru sneezed again and grinned at the wolf in amusement. Natsuki scowled at her.

The unmentionable being wailed, "Oneesama, you don't seriously have that kind of relationship with this beast, do you?!"

"I don't know," the brunette smirked mischievously. "I seem to recall that one night we spent in the shower..."

_OhmyfuckingGodwhat?_

"Then there was that romantic moment in Natsuki's office before one of the kids walked in on us... oh, and that time with the bubble wrap Natsuki has fun popping in her free time, that was the best!"

Natsuki gawked at her with a mixture of shock, horror, and anything generally synonymous with "WTF". Judging from the rather suggestive images flashing through her mind, Gakuenchou will never be able to look at bubble wrap the same way ever again. Tomoe looked like she was about to cry. Shizuru faced Natsuki and hooked her arms around the wolf's elbow, pressing it against her ample bosom, and leaned her head onto Natsuki's shoulder. Needless to say, the poor beast did her very best not to completely freak out when Shizuru started to flirtatiously trace circles on the fabric of her shirt. Tomoe was just trying to not break down like the emo little crybaby she was.

"Shizuru, what in the holy living fuck are you doing?!" Natsuki hissed through clenched teeth.

"If I recall, Natsuki was the one who said I sleep with her _all the time_," Shizuru whispered back; her tone was a tad too suggestive for Natsuki's taste. The beauty, flashing a seductive grin, even went so far as to lean up and bite the wolf's ear.

Insert mental blue screen of death here.

"NO! STOP! ENOUGH WITH THE OPEN DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION, ALREADY!!" Tomoe roared in utter devastation at what the leather-clad brunette had just done. Hopefully, she'll commit suicide again.

"Did I not make it clear that I'm happy with Natsuki?" Shizuru said to the unsightly massive cross-breeding orgy result. "So to be honest, I hardly see why you would do this to yourself."

"I did this to myself because I want you to be mine!!"

Shizuru tilted her head, deliberately playing dumb. "That's odd. All I hear is that you want to--"

And now, for a look into Natsuki's rebooting mind.

_**Unknown Operation in program KrugerLibido.exe. Close?** __Yes. **The page cannot be dislpayed.** Refresh. **The page cannot be displayed.** Refresh. **The page cannot be displayed.** Control... Alt... Delete. **A fatal exception has occurred in process ReturnToSanity. Press any key to continue.** Enter. **A fatal exception has occurred in process ReturnToSanity. Press any key to continue.** Control alt delete, control alt delete, CONTROL ALT DELETE! **Unable to boot Sanity. Start in Safe Mode?** Yes!_

The Kruger's tail started wagging. That wasn't quite the start-up she was hoping for, but it was better than nothing.

Meanwhile, Tomoe had just interrupted Shizuru's opinion of why she was such a deranged little stalker.

"That's not it! …Okay, maybe that's part of it, but you can do so much better than _that_!" She pointed a large finger at the still catatonic wolf. "She's just some anthropomorphic beast that won't hesitate to smash someone's skull in! I on the other hand, can—"

"_Who_," Shizuru corrected.

"What?"

"'She's just some anthropomorphic beast _who_ won't hesitate to smash someone's skull in.' We really should work on your grammar, Tomoe."

"Oh, like Kruger's a textbook example of Prince Charming?"

"I wouldn't say that, but she can be quite the gentleman, so to speak."

_Work the arms, you asshole, work the arms!_ Natsuki thought furiously to herself, having regained her ability to think coherent thoughts and was currently struggling with getting her limbs to operate. Sadly, her body was still in shock of what Shizuru had done, and she had yet to have a certain little voice in the back of her head smack her and say "Snap out of it!"

"You can't be serious," Tomoe stubbornly continued. "We're talking about Natsuki H. Kruger. She's from a country that is known for not only being insanely cold, but also as the home for many armed and dangerous communist spies. Hell, there was an article in the newspapers about her being a spy because of all the firearms she owns. And she only uses a motorcycle as a mode of transportation. That just screams bad news. If I saw her picking you up on some outrageously dangerous bike, the first thing I'd think is, did she call a cab?"

_FUCKING HELL! _screamed a little voice in the back of Natsuki's head. _That bitch just crossed the politically correct line! All hands move out! PRONTO!_

Shizuru heard a deep growl issuing forth from Natsuki's throat and knowingly released her arm. The beast almost instantly launched herself at Tomoe, her fangs poised at the monster's throat. Tomoe barely managed to avoid getting her neck ripped open by moving away a little, only to have the Kruger's teeth sink themselves into her bulky shoulder instead, claws swiping at every inch of skin she could reach. The monstrosity let out a shriek and flailed herself about in a vain attempt to fling the beast off of her, but Natsuki's strong jaws clung firmly to her, gnawing and tugging at the green flesh. Shizuru just watched on, muffling a sneeze into another tissue. Damn allergies.

"Screw this!" Tomoe hissed, grabbing Natsuki's torso with one hand and yanking her away as the wolf's fangs ripped off a large chunk of flesh from her shoulder. Tomoe screamed in pain and tossed Natsuki aside, gripping her bleeding shoulder. Natsuki landed on all fours and spat the bloody flesh onto the floor, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

"Jesus, Marguerite, have you ever taken a shower? You taste like rotting half-eaten meat drowned in sulfur."

Shizuru sneezed yet again at that.

Tomoe's eyebrow twitched. "Oh, so that's how it is? Two can play at this game, Kruger!"

The creature surged forward and shot out her right fist, which Natsuki caught with her left hand. Tomoe tried again with her left, and the two found themselves in a stalemate. This time, Tomoe rammed her head down and Natsuki did the same, her jaws opened wide. The wolf narrowly avoided getting her head smashed in and sank her fangs into the monster's skull, biting down with all her strength. Grunting in frustration, Tomoe swung her head to and fro before finally grabbing Natsuki's torso a second time and slamming her down to the floor, only for Natsuki to leap back up and bite the her skull again, her paws now gripping Tomoe's massive horns for support.

Shizuru watched the two grapple and felt her right hand twitch, toying with the idea of materializing her weapon in case Tomoe tried to pull anything that would harm Natsuki. She wasn't sure what she'd do if the green monstrosity actually did try something, but if it would happen, then she would undoubtedly snap. What the brunette was currently feeling toward Tomoe wasn't quite as savage as bloodlust, but it was definitely stronger than bitter resentment.

At that moment, Natsuki threw her head back, ripping off another piece of Tomoe's flesh. This time, a large portion of muscle tissue had been torn off as well, showing some bone from her bloody skull. Natsuki jumped off and leaned against the wall the catch her breath, spitting out the flesh and watching Tomoe's hands grasp her head, the beast wailing in agony. Before she had a chance to react, Tomoe suddenly charged on all fours with her head lowered, both horns impaling themselves into the wolf's torso. Natsuki bit down on her lower lip to vainly hold back a scream as she felt warm blood ooze down and stain her white shirt.

"Tell me what you cherish most," Tomoe hissed, pushing her further into the wall. "Give me the pleasure of taking it away?"

"Sorry, I saw that movie," Natsuki grunted back. Her eye caught something behind the larger beast. "By the way, might wanna think fast."

"Why?"

As if on cue, Shizuru came right out of nowhere, a double-edged katana raised above her head, and leaped down, stabbing the long blade into Tomoe's back.

"That's why."

Shizuru, an almost ferocious gleam in her crimson eyes, leaned down and whispered into Tomoe's cow-like ear, "Did you really think you could get away with doing that to Natsuki? I'll never forgive you for that."

_Because I love Natsuki._

With that, Shizuru drew her blade back out of Tomoe's back, dark blood staining the golden steel. Tomoe staggered down to her knees and coughed up some blood. Natsuki, breathing a little heavily, took advantage of the monster's moment of weakness to grab her horns and roughly pulled them out of her body. Still holding the large tusks, the wolf stared long and hard into Tomoe's disillusioned lavender eyes.

"Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so," Natsuki shrugged, promptly twisting the horns in a ninety degree angle, satisfied to see Tomoe's neck loudly snap into a rather sickening position, and topped it off with her fist slamming into her skull. The green behemoth crashed into the floor, her foot twitching for a moment, and she was soon completely motionless. Natsuki sighed, laying a hand across her stomach and gingerly tapped one of the two large punctures in her abdomen. Shizuru reverted back to her lilac dress and immediately wrapped her arms around the wounded beast, hugging her tightly.

Natsuki stared at her. Shizuru blinked.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just get the feeling that the brat's death was a little... anti-climactic."

"Oh well," Shizuru shrugged, and tightened her embrace. For an instant, she forgot that Natsuki had just been stabbed.

"Ow," the beast winced.

"Sorry!"

Natsuki lightly pushed the brunette away and glanced at the big red stains on her dress. "Um, Shizuru, could you try not to hug me again? You'll get blood all over your clothes."

"I'm not worried about that right now. Let's just go and get you fixed up."

Shizuru grabbed Natsuki's large paw, but the wolf placed her free hand on her friend's shoulder. Shizuru looked at her oddly.

"What is it?"

"Just out of curiosity," Natsuki lowered her voice. "I know you smacked Marguerite upside her head when she talked smack about me, but was it really necessary to go and stab her like that?"

"Yes, it was," Shizuru replied cheekily.

"Okaaay. Mind explaining why?"

"Because she could have broken your back if neither of us were careful."

At that point, there was very little distance between the two of them. Natsuki could almost see her reflection in Shizuru's crimson eyes. Unconsciously, they each took a small step closer.

"So you were worried that I might've possibly gotten myself killed in the worse case scenario."

"Exactly."

"Because you like me, right?" Natsuki boldly leaned even closer, her heart racing when Shizuru did the same.

"Because I feel for Natsuki," Shizuru stated, their faces just inches away.

"And you don't care if I'm a hot-headed anthropomorphic wolf, huh?"

"Frankly, my dear Natsuki..." Shizuru cupped Natsuki's face in her hands. "I don't give a damn."

Then she brought the wolf down into a gentle kiss.

* * *

Tomoe opened her eyes. She seemed to be in some sort of office, only it looked like blood was stained all over the walls and floor. She spotted a small poster that read "_Sona Si Latine Loqueris_" next to a commemorative plaque with the words "STUDY, DAMMIT!" glaring at her in big red letters. Just a few feet away from her was a large desk, whose occupant was talking with someone in a tattered black cloak.

"Okay, let's get this over with," said an oddly familiar bass-like voice. "If I'm not out of here soon my girl's gonna rip my head off."

"But your head always grows back," the person in the cloak replied matter-of-factly, her voice ringing a bell in Tomoe's head.

"That's not the point! She can get really sensitive, you know. So, why do you think I called you into my office?"

"Well, uh... we have sort of a problem here...?"

"Yeah, you apparently didn't put the new cover sheets on your TPS reports."

"Oh! I'm sorry about that, I... I forgot."

"Hmm. Yeah."

Tomoe saw the apparent 'boss' rest her feet (she was wearing a pair of black Chuck Taylor All-Star Converse sneakers) on the desk and lean back in her chair.

"You see, we're putting cover sheets on _all_ TPS reports now before they go out. Did you see the memo about this?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I read the memo, I just forgot. But uh, they're not shipping out till tomorrow, so there's no problem."

"Yeah. If you could just remember to do that from now on, that'd be great. And uh, I'll make sure you get another copy of that memo, okay?"

"Okay, sure."

"And one more thing. Could you take that damn cloak off? We only let you wear that thing when you're emo, remember?"

"Damn it, boss!" the cloaked being snapped, throwing the cloak off. "I'm the unofficial Grim Reaper around here, can't I at least stay true to that part of my job? Geez!"

The boss heaved a frustrated groan and stood up.

Tomoe's jaw dropped. _Jesus Christ, it's that Seeker chick! And, oh my God, wait. Is that Kruger?! ...Oh no, false alarm. Kruger's a cursed wolf/beast hybrid. And her nametag thing says Kuga. Never mind._

The not so furry Kruger look-a-like in a 1920's mobster-styled suit (complete with a black fedora) folded her arms and glared at the Seeker. "Unofficial being the key word there. I don't care if you're a graduate of motherfucking Leviathan University, just get your ass out there and do your goddamn job already."

The Seeker gave her boss a rude hand gesture and yanked the door open, an eruption of anguished shrieks and hellfire flooding into the room. She left, slammed the door shut, the shrieks and hellfire subsided, and Tomoe was left alone with who just might be the Boss of All Hell. Kuga looked at her as if she just know noticed her semi-existence.

"What do you want?" she demanded gruffly.

"Uh, well, I..." Tomoe faltered.

"Wait, wait, don't tell me. You're that suicidal punk the Seeker gave a second chance at life to, right? Huh, you barely lasted ten minutes."

"It's not my fault I died from a stab wound and getting my spinal chord broken!"

"Whatever, kid, just let me take a look at your resumé..."

"I have a resumé?"

"For sins, yeah," Kuga shrugged, searching through some papers on her desk, muttering inaudibly to herself. Suddenly her eyes bulged. "Holy shit! We haven't had a newcomer with this many sins in years!"

"Is that a bad thing?" Tomoe asked.

Kuga looked at her, paused for a moment, and said in fluent Latin, "_Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem._"

Tomoe stared at her. "...Listen, could you repeat whatever you just told me, only this time say it in English?"

"Oh!" Kuga looked surprised. "_Denuone Latine loquebar?_ _Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur._ _Sane, paululum linguae Latinae dico. Id legi modo hic modo illic. Vero, Latine loqui non est difficilissimum. Lingua speciem involutam praebet, sed sat cito eam comprehendes. Atque memento, nulli adsunt Romanorum qui locutionem tuam corrigant._"

"I just asked you to repeat that in English! Are you deaf or something?"

"Nah, I just like to screw around with the Latin language. I think it's fun."

"I don't think it's fun for someone who doesn't know one lick of Latin."

"That's what makes it fun!"

"Rrrgh!" Tomoe growled angrily. "Whatever! Look, can you at least tell me where I can find a bath or something before I get to my eternal suffering? I feel like I'll get a disease in this crazy office of yours."

Kuga pointed her thumb at a door in the back of the room. "Just go through there and make a left. Can't miss it."

"Thanks, uh... boss."

"You don't have to call me that. 'Sides, I'm actually more like the Vice President here, so to speak. If you want the REAL boss, you'll have to talk with my girl, Fujino." It was at that moment when Kuga glanced at her wristwatch. "Gah! Look at the time! She'll kill me!"

Grabbing a briefcase, Kuga charged out of her office while mumbling a string of curses. Tomoe blinked. She glanced at the papers Kuga left behind on her desk and noticed a familiar name.

_Natsuki Holopainen Kruger? Weird middle name. So she's scheduled to... enter Purgatory upon her death in nearly a century from now?! You've got to be kidding me..._

The girl scoffed and made her way to the back door, hesitated only because the doorknob suspiciously resembled an eyeball, and pushed it open. She saw a normal-looking hallway, so she made a left just as Kuga said and opened the door. Inside was a surprisingly clean marble bathroom. Tomoe's eyes lit up.

"Oh great, a bath! I'm surprised this place even has a decent bathroom, what with Hell being drowned in the unmentionable body fluids of sinners and all..."

Closing the door behind her, Tomoe practically skipped her way over to the large white bath tub (no soap scum, even!) and fiddled with the shining water taps. Nothing. Tomoe kicked the bath in frustration.

_The bath doesn't work! For God's sake, I come here looking for a nice bath and I don't get one-- wait a second..._

She placed her hands on the side of the bath and bent over, examining the plug. What happened next was merely the beginning of the young stalker's unusual and disturbing eternal torment.

"OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD! IT'S COMING FROM THE PLUG, IT SHOULDN'T DO THAT! Oh, and it's human waste. BUT IT'S COMING FROM THE PLUG, IT SHOULD BE COMING FROM THE TAP!"

* * *

Kissing a wolf was admittedly odd, but not unpleasant. Granted, it was strange to kiss an animal, period. But then again, did Shizuru care? Hell no. Just as long as the wolf she happened to be kissing was Natsuki, Shizuru was happy.

Natsuki however, was still in shock of what she and the brunette were doing. One minute Shizuru had just saved her from quite literally becoming a bloodied up Kruger-On-A-Stick, and the next thing she knew they were locking lips. Although her face was about to have a volcanic eruption of sorts, Natsuki really did feel like her heart was pleasantly swelling into a size too big for her chest to hold. With that in mind, she pressed herself into Shizuru's warmth as close as she could, deepening the kiss.

* * *

Time had run out.

On the bedstand, the aura surrounding the enchanted rose had been slowly fading. As the final petal fell to join the rest at last, the light finally died away.

What happened next wasn't really all that remarkable. Just some flashing lights, something one would expect to see from a lightshow at a music concert, and Gaderobe had undergone a complete transformation. Gone was the gloomy, nearly grotesque building, now reverted to the shining academy it once was. Along with it came its inhabitants, who no longer had to deal with pointy ears and pesky tails that had minds of their own. Even Tomoe's corpse had reacted to the effects of the curse, and the hideous carcass evaporated into a cloud of emerald sparks.

* * *

Nina tightly shut her eyes to block out the random lights that started flashing in the room. When it was over, she opened one eye and glanced down at the blonde hair tucked under her chin. Weird. What happened to Erstin's ears? As if to answer her, Erstin pulled away a little to look at her, and the two froze in shock.

Both of them were human.

Nina ran her reddish eyes up and down Erstin's face, drinking in the girl's delicate features. She gulped; was Erstin always that pretty? The blonde's viridian eyes widened slightly when she felt Nina's hands absentmindedly trail down from her shoulders to her waist, but she wasn't about to complain.

"Nina-chan, I--"

"Nina."

"Huh?"

The dark-haired girl's eyes softened as she gave her friend a rare smile.

"Just call me Nina, okay?"

Erstin's face showed confusion, then surprise, acceptance, and finally contentment. She couldn't help but fall into Nina's warmth again, slender arms draped protectively around her. _This is nice,_ she thought, but something was bugging her.

"Nina?"

"Hm?"

"What... what about your father?" Erstin really didn't want to ask that, but she just had to know if Nina was getting over him.

"Screw him," was Nina's blunt reply. "I'm sick and tired of following him like a lost puppy."

Erstin smiled. That was good enough for her.

* * *

Meanwhile, two certain lovebirds had yet to even acknowledge the event, being far too preoccupied with their current activity to notice what was going on.

At that moment, the wolfish appearance had entirely vanished from Natsuki's body, the young principal returned to her human form. Finally, Shizuru pulled away from the kiss and opened her eyes, not expecting the sight before her.

Instead of seeing the large wolf she loved cuddling with in her sleep, Shizuru saw a woman around her age, a long mane of blue-black hair draping down her pale face like a veil. The blood-stained white dress shirt, comically too big for the younger woman's athletic build, hung quite loosely on her well-rounded shoulders. Her face was undeniably beautiful and had an almost masculine charm to it, ending in a tough little chin. Shizuru couldn't help but stare, and this worried the former beast quite a bit.

"Uh, Shizuru?" she asked, her voice a deep, heavy bass. "You feeling okay? I wasn't that, well... y'know, that bad, was I?" In a picture of cuteness, she shyly scratched her ear, and froze in place at the contact. Natsuki stared at her palms as if she were dreaming. They were strong, slender hands, very much unlike the beast's large, burly paws. Just to be sure, she patted down various parts of her body and bent over to look between her legs, searching for a fluffy tail.

Natsuki stared at her bare feet. _Is this a dream? It can't be, my shirt's still all bloody. This is... my God, this is really happening!_

"Natsuki..." Shizuru watched the woman almost uncertainly. _So this is my wolf's true form...? _"You really are Natsuki, right?"

Natsuki's head shot back up, looking into the brunette's eyes. She came back up close and gazed meaningfully into the crimson pools.

"I am, if you want me to be," she said softly, taking Shizuru's hand and placing it on her cheek. "See? I'm real."

Shizuru gently caressed her thumb against the soft skin, her fingers stroking the silky dark hair. She gazed into Natsuki's eyes and lost herself in their penetrating stare. Her blue-black hair clashed magnificently with those orbs, making the emerald color all the more intense. She smiled, and snaked her arms around the other woman's neck. Natsuki grinned back, her strong hands caressing Shizuru's slender waist, fingering the bow on her dress.

"Shizuru, I... oh no..." Natsuki's eyes clouded in dismay.

"What's wrong?" Shizuru, remembering Nao's little prank the previous night, turned her head to see if anyone was watching them.

"You're... taller than me now..." the younger woman muttered.

The brunette stared at her. Sure enough, the younger woman was roughly less than an inch shorter than her. She put a hand over her mouth to hold back some giggles. Natsuki scowled.

"Shut up, it's not funny!"

* * *

"WAAAH!"

The yell had come from Sergey, who had shielded his eyes from the random lightshow. After a moment, when the only thing he could hear was deafening silence, he opened his eyes and screamed bloody murder.

"OHMYGOD, I'VE GONE BLIND!" he shrieked, his voice reaching a pitch much higher than he would've liked. Suddenly, the darkness vanished and Mashiro stood in his sight The blonde blinked and then dragged the midget ruler into a back-breaking bear hug, lifting her up and twirling around in childish glee.

"I don't believe it! Your Highness, you have healing powers?!"

"Let me go, dumbass!" Mashiro snapped, wrenching one arm free and slapping him upside the head. "You just had your hand over your eyes, you doofus!"

Sergey paused. Realization dawning upon his face, he released Mashiro and rubbed the back of his head, laughing stupidly.

"Haha... eh, I knew that..."

"Yeah, right," Nao snorted. "What's next, you're gonna tell us what the Planck Scale is?"

Sergey was about to come up with an excuse as to why he had no idea what the Planck Scale was, seeing as science was never really his strong point, when he took one look at the all-female group around him and nearly had a heart attack.

Not a furry in sight.

Nao, Chie, and Arika had all switched back into human form sometime during the lightshow, and were either in shock (Arinko) or tightly hugging their love interest out of sheer joy (Chie and Aoi). Duran whimpered nervously as his pale blue armor made dull clinking noises and suddenly collapsed onto the floor, the large cannons that once rested on his shoulders no doubt leaving dents where they landed. Standing amidst the fallen armor stood a small wolf pup, his silver fur and big blue eyes shining in the newly restored academy atrium. Duran took a moment to process what just happened, then barked and excitedly ran in a circle, probably his way of saying, "Yo, mah homie fries!"

The confused major let the recent turn of events sink into his cavernous skull, and had just gotten his voice back when, as if on cue, two familiar figures entered the atrium.

"We're back," Shizuru greeted almost comically, as if furries being turned into people and lights flashing all over the place for seemingly no apparent reason happened every day. "I see everything's turned back to the way it was..."

Upon hearing the brunette's voice, Duran's tail and ears perked straight up and he launched into Happy Rush Pounce Mode, his claws scraping loudly against the floor as he dashed over and quite literally lept into Shizuru's arms. Shizuru held back a delighted squeal as she tightly hugged Duran, his smooth tongue happily attacking her face. Natsuki grinned a little at the scene and adjusted her shirt.

"So, uh, is everybody happy now that the curse is gone?"

Sergey didn't seem to hear her, as he was busy gawking at the dark-haired woman with a mix of fascination and confusion. One can almost hear "I Believe in Miracles" playing in his head. Ugh. He turned to Shizuru and pointed at Natsuki.

"Say, Viola, who's this? I mean, what happened to that disfigured mutation of an anthropomo--?"

"Ixnay," Shizuru interrupted. "Besides, you already used that term."

"...Whatever. Anyway, she does look kinda familiar, what with the dark hair and that feral gleam in her eyes that's basically telling me to shut up before she rips out my tongue and shoves it down my throat."

"Gee, I dunno," Natsuki seethed. "Maybe that's 'cause I used to be that disfigured mutation of an anthropomorphic wolf! Now kindly shut up before I rip out your tongue and shove it halfway up your ass."

Sergey paled. "You mean... that beast was really Natsuki Halowhat'sitsnen Kruger?!"

"It's _Holopainen_!"

"So, anyway!" Chie interjected. "Whatever happened to Tomoe? Weren't you supposed to be looking for her?"

"Huh? Oh yeah," Natsuki blinked. "Bad news. Marguerite's dead."

"What? What do you mean?" Miya demanded.

"Uh... dead. Adjective. Meaning no longer alive."

"So she died because her very existence couldn't handle the sheer atrocity of what she turned into?" Nao guessed.

"Well..." the Kruger considered the question. "If by that, you mean being stabbed in the back and getting her neck broken, then yes, she did."

Sergey gaped. "You _killed_ her?!"

"Uh, 'killed' is kind of a harsh word. I think 'slaughtered' would be more appropriate. But hey, at least her corpse went _poof!_ with the curse being lifted and all, so that's a relief. All that blood would've been hell for Colin to clean up, the poor sap. Besides, I think Marguerite deserved it, anyway."

"Makes sense," Miya muttered to herself. "She always was too much of a sociopath for her own good."

Mashiro raised her hand. "Question! Um, how exactly did all this happen?"

"Okay, to make a long story short," Chie began. "Gakuenchou refused to give some old beggar lady shelter during the winter, because she was still a short-tempered, surly little psychopath back in those days--"

"Hey!" Natsuki protested.

"So the beggar lady turned into some kinda enchantress chick and gave her a rose, thus cursing the entire academy to be a grotesquely oversized House of Usher with all its inhabitants turning into anthropomorphic animals. Or so we're told. Anyway, the only way to break the curse was for Gakuenchou to learn to love and earn her love in return, and everything will be hunky-dory again."

"But was the lightshow really necessary?" Sergey complained. "I went temporarily blind for a second there!"

"You had your hand over your eyes, stupid!" Nao snapped.

"Yeah, and Kruger knows how Phase Transition can be a weapon of mass destruction," Wang-san rolled his eyes in a pathetic attempt to defend his ego, despite not really knowing what Phase Transition was.

"Phase Transition is basically the change from one physical state to another," Natsuki explained in a dull tone. "As far as I know, PT weaponry is still being tested as a highly destructive weapon that sets off a powerful form of energy emission kind of like plasma beams, and that might refer to the direct conversion of mass to energy according to Einstein theory, which eventually lead to atomic weaponry. This would therefore be similar to what happens when anti-matter comes into collision with its corresponding matter, resulting in the release of massive amounts of energy. I heard a rumor that the military's prototype phase transfer cannon is capable of vaporizing an entire star with one shot, but it's not a certainty."

Sergey tried to register just what Natsuki's technobabble meant, but he was lost when she got to "direct conversion of mass to energy". A nagging little voice in the back of his noggin told him that his already badly damaged ego had just hit rock bottom. Natsuki smirked, and then suddenly remembered something. She faced Shizuru and pinched her cheek as hard as she could.

"Natsuki, what-- ow! Oww!"

"Say, Shizuru," said Natsuki through clenched teeth. "Mind explaining why you gave Marguerite the idea that we had... y'know, _that_ kind of relationship before she started crossing the politically correct line?"

Shizuru wrenched away from Natsuki's wrath and rubbed her cheek, holding Duran with her other arm. Duran glanced between the two, his ears twitching in confusion.

"Well, Natsuki was the one who said I sleep with her all the--"

"I heard you the first time, jeez!"

_That kind of relationship...? Slept with her all the...?_ Nao thought to herself. Before she knew it, the redhead found herself marching toward the principal and randomly smacked her right in the face. Natsuki froze, blinked several times, and stared at Nao as if she had a procession of gnomes flying out of her ears.

"Um, I don't know whether to say 'ow' or 'what the worldly hell was that for?'," she quipped.

"THAT," Nao poked the older woman's shoulder, "was for making me fangirl all over you as a kid, outline your name in little hearts, fantasize like a hormonal thirteen-year-old, and even going so far as to make a shrine of you in my closet. But now that you've got yourself a girlfriend, I don't have to run circles around you and feel like I've been hit by a pile of bricks whenever you so much as talk to me. Yay for moving on with my life."

Natsuki shuddered at the memory of that shrine.

"Um, is this going to be an all-out heartbroken rant?" Miya asked.

"Actually, I was going to say a lot more boring crap, but I don't feel like it right now, so whoo!" Nao whooped, turning on her heel and making her way to the enterance. "Well, I'm outta here. See you shmucks in a few days."

"Where exactly are you going, just out of curiosity?" Chie raised an eyebrow as she looped an arm around Aoi's waist, considering all the ways to make up for lost times with the maid.

"Just to prowl around the city, start years of relationship struggles, fuck up an election, and finally realize why Kruger isn't my type in the first place: she likes red-eyed brunettes with big bo--"

"Oh, get the fuck out, go on," Natsuki grumbled, practically dragging Nao by the collar just to get her to leave. Once Nao had finally left without giving her even more of a hard time for once, Natsuki returned to her spot beside Shizuru, who (along with everyone else) was watching Natsuki very interestedly.

"You like red-eyed brunettes with big _what_?" she asked slyly.

In spite of several people watching them at that moment, Natsuki desperately swallowed her pride and grabbed Shizuru's shoulders and sealed their lips together. Everyone stared at the sight in surprise before gathering their wits and starting up an explosively loud cheer, Miya stomping on Sergey's foot when the major made a noise that sounded oddly like "Bow-chicka-wow-wow." At that moment, a busty redhead (who had one strand of hair that looked something like the Nike logo) with a spiky-haired girl clinging to her like a baby koala darted into the atrium and froze at the sight of Natsuki and Shizuru locking lips.

"Well, would you look at that," Mai grinned. "I never would've guessed that Kruger was so passionate."

Mikoto turned her face away from Mai's ample chest to look at the two. She raised an eyebrow and used one arm to scratch her wild ebony hair in confusion.

"...Um, Mai, does this mean Gakuenchou and Viola are gonna have kids?"

Shizuru and Natsuki promptly froze in mid-kiss.


End file.
